I Can't Drown My Demons, They Know How To Swim (Spamano RP)
by xHetaliax
Summary: Lovino used to be loud and happy, and most importantly, he used to have friends. That all changed when his father grew cold towards him at the age of three. Now, he's alone. But that's alright with him. He's used to it anyways. (Rated M for abuse and swearing.) RP with LemonYellowCoat.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! This is a new SpaMano story by myself and LemonYellowCoat. The title is from the song 'Can You Feel My Heart?' by Bring Me The Horizon. I asked her why she made Antonio the way he is, and she said, "I portrayed Toni like that because one, he knows Lovi is being bullied- and he hates that, so he tries to stop it in anyway he can. Also, when Lovi's sad, he's sad, when he's happy, he's happy... you know, cause of the crush thing. So he tries to make him happy in anyway possible, so he's really protective because of that."

The reason I portrayed Lovino the way I did is because he's a lot like me. He hides a lot of his emotions with a smile that is usually real, but sometimes he is severely depressed and hides it. Most of the time, I am happy, but when I'm alone or am given time to think, I realize a lot of things and it makes me unhappy. This kind of thing has been happening a lot recently, I don't know why, but I let my emotions out with Lovino. None of the things that are happening to him are happening to me (at the moment?) so no, I don't (SPOILER O.O) hurt myself, my father doesn't beat me (in fact, he's the most important person in my life), so none of that stuff has to do with me, but the things he thinks are basically my feelings. Lovino will become increasingly angrier, as in the first chapter he isn't too upset. It's kind of like the origins of his anger. We hope you enjoy it!

Sincerely, Maddie and Amity.

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><p><em>I'm scared to get close and I hate being alone.<em>

_I long for that feeling to not feel at all._

_The higher I get, the lower I'll sink._

_I can't drown my demons, they know how to swim._

Lovino sighed, as he walked down the hall to his next class. He was surprised that no one had pushed him over yet... Then again, the hallway was vacant, so no one could do anything.

Just as he thought this, three of the schools biggest bullies, Ivan, Gilbert and Francis began to walk down the other end of the hall. "Oh, look who we have here." Ivan was the first to talk in his thick, Russian accent that sounded terrifying enough on it's own. As a reply, Lovino stepped back slightly, only to be pulled back by the collar of his shirt by Gilbert. "Going somewhere, kesese..." The Prussian laughed, as Francis took a swing at him that left him on his knees.

Antonio was jogging down the halls, a little late for class, when he heard a "Kesese~" and a crash. Ah, crap. He decided to go check out what was happening, he was late anyways. His pupils dilated when he saw what his friends were doing. Dropping his books, he ran over to Francis and held his wrist so that he couldn't punch. "What are you doing?" Francis asked with an attitude that certainly wasn't one of gratitude. Antonio frowned.

"Don't you three have to get to class?" He asked, tone friendly but eyes hard. "All the way across the building is a hard walk!" He smiled. "Fusososo, go on ahead now." He lightly nudged them on the shoulder. The three hesitated, then walked away with muttered curse words. "I'll catch you for coffee later!" Antonio called out, then turned to Romano and held a hand out to him to help him up. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Lovino lied. He was used to this, and didn't want anyone worrying. There wasn't any point in it anyway, he didn't have any friends and the only person who presumably cared was friends with the people that make his life hell. He'd rather cut down the inconveniences when he's finally gone.

Antonio didn't buy it. "Are you sure...?" He asked. "They're idiots sometimes Lovi, I'm sorry." He smiled apologetically. "Let me walk you to class or something, okay? I'm already late, so no rush... Wait, let me grab my books." He went to grab them and then ran back. He really liked Lovino, and not in the platonic way and he didn't want him to be upset, or hurt. Of course, he knew his feelings wouldn't be returned, but the best he could do is be friendly.

Lovino smiled slightly, glad that someone was at least pretending to care about him. That's more than he could ask for. He didn't even deserve for someone like Antonio to be around. His father had made sure he knew that. His brother, Feliciano, had always been the better one out of the two. He was smarter, more talented, everything Lovino wasn't. So he was glad for the few times a month that this boy would talk to him. He followed him to his class, knowing they were both late for their separate classes. They had music together next period, but they never talked, because Francis was in that class also. So Lovino stuck with playing the piano on his own.

"So... I'll see you next period, I guess?" Antonio said once he got to his halfway over class, Spanish. The walk was wordless, but not awkward. At least, not to him. He hoped he wasn't beating himself up over something. "You play piano really well, Mr. Roma always gushes over you." The compliment was lighthearted, but sincere.

Lovino blushed. "Th-thank you... I think you're really good at the guitar..." he said quietly. He used to be much louder... When he had friends. Once they arrived at his class, math, he waved at Antonio who waved back and opened the door to his class, prepared to be yelled at by his teacher.

Antonio beamed brightly at the compliment. "Thank you Lovi." He then waved goodbye and walked into his class- the teacher was rather fond of him, so he wasn't that worried.

As the bell for next period rang, Lovino left his class and began his journey the the music room, the only class he felt comfortable being in. Once he arrived, he set his things down by the piano. A few people were already there. Alfred and Francis, who played the electric guitar while the Frenchman sang (badly, in Lovino's opinion. Though he could never tell him that.). He began to play a few random notes, not really meaning anything by them, when it became a real song that held a bit of his emotions inside the keys he struck.

A short Spanish adventure later, Antonio found himself in the music room and snagged an acoustic guitar for himself. Crossing the room and plunking down next to the horrible musicians that is Alfred and Francis, with a quick "Hi!" He absentmindedly plucked the strings. He managed to tone out the... beautiful... rendition of "Don't Stop Believing" and listened to Lovino's piano, like he always did. The song he was playing was beautiful, angry and sad and hurting. It was played with so much emotion...

He listened to the song and strummed some chords, playing along, adding a touch of hope to the remorse song. It shouldn't have worked well, but for some reason, it did.

Lovino, almost completely toned out to the rest of the word, nearly missed Antonio's rendition, and the hope his chords brought to the song Lovino was playing. It seemed to add meaning, as though the piano was his life, and the guitar was the reason for his existence. It brought a small smile to his face, one that you would only notice if you were to look closely, but still, it was there. And that meant a lot to the sad Lovino who had lost hope and gained betrayal.

Antonio was completely in the song, when a sudden "Dude!" snapped him out of it with a sour chord. "I said your name, like, 3 times! We need you to do guitar to play Cotton Eye Joe!" Alfred's eyes were shining. Antonio glanced over at Lovino and a ghost of a smile was etched on the Italian's face.

"Yeah, sure." Antonio smiled and switched gears to start playing an awful country song. He took a last glance at Lovi, apologetically smiled, and started strumming the chords for the American and the Frenchman to sing.

All of a sudden, all of the hope was gone for Lovino, but that was okay. He hadn't had much of it in the first place. But he continued his sombre song, tuning out the bad 'Where did you come from?'s that Francis was singing. It wasn't too hard to do, but his song now sounded incomplete. Not necessarily bad, but it was just... depressing to listen to, even for the Italian.

In the middle of the commotion, the door swished open and an unusually handsome middle aged man walked in. The class quickly quieted down. "Hello class!" He chirped. "Today, we're going to be beginning the big project of the year." Antonio paid a little more attention. Mr. Roma was always going on and on, hinting it was going to be the best project ever and worth 30% or more of your grade.

"You... are to be..." Mr. Roma dramatically dragged it on. "Writing a song, which you will end up performing! In front of the whole school, it's so exciting, no?" Mr. Roma let the class process this. Antonio was... surprised. He hated performing in front of crowds. "Also, you're going to have to have a partner." Several pairs of hopeful eyes met several other pairs, but Antonio was focused on Mr. Roma. "I have taken the liberty of choosing!"

Groans were heard, and Mr. Roma theatrically rolled his eyes and started reading the list of who's partnered with who. Antonio hoped he would be partnered with someone who wasn't a complete idiot...

"Antonio Carriedo and Lovino Vargas," Mr. Roma read, and Antonio smiled and looked over at Lovi happily. This was going to be interesting.

Lovino looked back at Antonio, happy he had gotten someone he could at least tolerate. He had no idea what they were going to do, though. He'd rather not play a really sad and slow song in front of the whole school.

Antonio made his way over, considering Lovino was on the piano and couldn't exactly move it. "So... What do you think we should do?" He asked quietly, turning a little in his seat to face Antonio.

"Maybe not something sad..." Antonio thought for a little. "But, I also have to decline in bubblegum pop." He glanced over to a squealing Chelles and Laura. "Something traditional, maybe?"

Lovino nodded. "I agree. Do you think it should be closer to a happy song or a sad song? Personally, I think it should be closer to sad, but not depressing..."

"Maybe it should start out sad, but then turn into something... hopeful. Still with a tinge of remorse, but there's still hope, right?" Antonio shrugged.

Lovino smiled slightly. "Okay. I think it should start out with like a low A and kind of work it's way up? The piano should be the sad parts and the guitar should add the hope and then the piano should gain hope as well. Oh! What if during the hopeful song, the guitar slowly saddens? I mean, that's what happens with people a lot of the time, right?" He exclaimed, growing slightly more excited with this whole 'writing a song' thing.

Antonio smiled as he felt a small little thrill in his abdomen. Seeing Lovi so worked up and happy made him happy as well. It was rare to catch the Italian smiling. "Yeah, that sounds great! Maybe when the guitar starts losing hope, the piano picks up, maybe to try to cheer up the guitar...? But seriously, how do you come up with this stuff so quickly?" Antonio asked, waving his hands as he spoke.

Lovino shrugs. It had always just come to him. He never had to try too hard to think of something because his mind would always be racing to figure out something they could do. Just as he was about to suggest something else, the bell rang, making him frown. He had actually been having a good time. However, all good things must come to an end, and that was the end of the day. He looked over at Francis, hoping he wouldn't follow him out or try to hurt him in some way. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, okay. See you then~!" He stood up, grinned over his shoulder, and walked out of the classroom, hoping he would be able to get to his locker before that giant group of squealing girls that had the lockers next to him appeared.

Lovino stood up, walking out of the classroom with his things. He headed towards his locker, hoping no one would bother him. His wishes were granted for now, as no one did anything in the halls. He packed his stuff up and was about to leave, when an obnoxious french voice exclaimed, "Are those cuts on your arms!?" Lovino froze in his tracks, turning around slowly. "Man, I knew you were emo, but I didn't think you were _this_ emo!" he then proceeded to laugh his stupid laugh, and Lovino ran out of the school as fast as he could. No doubt everyone would be talking about it for the rest of the month at least.

Luckily for Antonio, the gaggle of giggling girls had already came and went, leaving behind a chokingly thick cloud of sickly sweet perfume. His eyes stung and he coughed as he hastily got his stuff and ran out, the chemicals irritating his eyes. "Freaking allergies..." He thought- he didn't dare inhale in case he'd taste it. Rubbing his closed eyes and running, he was bound to run into someone, and he did. Lovi. He opened his watery eyes and saw how broken he looked.

"Are... you okay?" Antonio asked, completely forgetting to apologize in his concern.

Lovino thought about lying, but knew he would see through it, so he shook his head, feeling a few tears coming. He ran past Antonio and into the boy's washroom, locking himself in one of the stalls and bringing his legs up onto the seat. A few sobs hacked at his throat. He tried his hardest to keep them in, but it was hard. He had been doing so well, he had thought. It had been a week since he had hurt himself, but they just had to comment on it, didn't they? Chances are, they had just ruined it and he would be back to his habits that night, when no one noticed.

Antonio watched Lovi run into the bathroom, and then slowly followed him. Opening the door, he heard a few sobs. It broke him. "Lovi...? Are you okay..?" He repeated, cautiously.

"G-Go away..." He said quietly, his voice betraying him. It just screamed _I need someone. _He didn't hear any footsteps, so he knew that Antonio hadn't left. He slowly unlocked the stall, peeking his head out and looking at him. "You d-don't have to st-stay. I'm fine on my o-wn."

Antonio walked over and hugged Lovino. "No, you're not. I'm staying here until you tell me what's wrong." His tone was kind, but firm, and his green eyes showed that he was worried about Lovi.

"You're going to be waiting a wh-while." He sobbed. Antonio's arms were still around him, and he was debating whether or not he should... but screw everything, he put his head on Antonio's shoulder.

Antonio felt bad for smiling, but he couldn't help but have a miniscule grin when Lovino put his head on his shoulder. He's so cute! "Fusososo~" He reassuringly used his good mood charm. "I have time, it's okay." His shirt was getting more and more damp, but he was okay with it.

Lovino smiled slightly, but he was running out of tears to shed. He really didn't want to say anything, but if he didn't get home soon his father would kill him. Probably not literally. "Okay... I-I'll tell you, but only b-because I have to get h-ome." He said quietly. He turned a little bit, his head still on Antonio's shoulder, and lifted up his long-sleeve shirt's sleeve to show the many cuts on his arm. Some were beginning to fade, but some were from the week before.

Antonio gasped and lightly ran his fingers along the rough surface of the scabbed arm. He bit his lip. "You... you cut yourself...? Why...?"

Lovino shrugs. "Life sucks." He answered simply.

"But still..." He bit his lip. "Romano, it doesn't seem healthy..." He used his nickname affectionately, but really..? It doesn't seem healthy was the best thing he could come up with? Oi, if he didn't get mad, he would give up tomatoes for an hour. Speaking of tomatoes, he pulled one out of his bag and offered it to Lovi, knowing he was a fellow tomato fan.

Lovino smiled, if only just a tiny bit, and took the tomato. "I know it's not healthy, obviously... It's not like I enjoy doing it... It's the only way I can actually feel... you wouldn't understand."

"No, I wouldn't, but I can try to understand." Antonio then surveyed he surroundings and stood up, grabbing Lovino's hand to pull him up. He held it for a little, then smiled and released it. "Your hand is warm. Here, maybe we can get coffee or something..? A men's bathroom really is no place for conversation."

Lovino debated it. He was already late, and whether it had been five minutes or five hours, it really made not difference, so he agreed. Following Antonio out of the bathroom, he asked, "Hey, can I get my stuff quickly? I didn't really have the chance earlier..."

"Okay, where is it?" Antonio smiled warmly, glad he could actually get coffee with Lovi. Ooh, would this be a date? It made his inner 15 year old girl squeal.

"It's just to the left of here, number 528." Lovino smiled, following Antonio out of the bathroom. No one bothered him, considering Antonio was with him, and he got his things easily. "So... where are we going?"

"Ah... there's this place I usually hit called Mi Tomate Cafe. It has lots of tomato related foods. It's good." He smiled.

Lovino chuckled. "You seem quite obsessed." he laughed, taking a bite out of his own tomato. He wasn't really one to talk, considering he had written a song all about tomatoes a while before.

"Tomatoes are one of the last sources of pure beauty left." Antonio declared. "Also, I get a discount because I go there everyday. Sweet, right?" Antonio said, leading the way to the café.

Lovino smiled slightly. "That is pretty sweet." He laughed. Once they had arrived, he realized that the whole café was tomato based. He followed Antonio inside, and quickly noticed that the inside was the same as the outside, if not even better. "Well, I can see why it's called Mi Tomate..."

The store wasn't that packed- only three or so other couples chilled there, sipping drinks. Antonio walked up to the cashier lady and ordered a latte and a tomato croissant. "What do you want Lovi?" He asked, tilting his head to the side like a curious little puppy.

"Um..." Lovino looked at the menu above the cash register. He hadn't ever been to one of these places (or maybe had when he was three or so and didn't remember it), so he really had no idea what he wanted. "I'll have a tea, please..." He said, not entirely sure if that's what he wanted, but it was better than nothing. Antonio pulled out his wallet, obviously intending to pay, but Lovino couldn't exactly stop him. He didn't have any money himself, maybe a dollar or two, but that wasn't enough to pay for it, so he just let it go, promising himself that he'd pay Antonio back once he got a little bit of money for his birthday or something like that.

Antonio happily paid for the drinks and easily chatted with the lady in Spanish. When the drinks were made, he guided Lovi over to a booth where nobody really sat and looked him in the eye. "Okay, seriously... was it something I did? Or anyone else..? Because life sucks isn't going to work for me..." He looked down, his tone worried.

Lovino looked away, ashamed in himself (which wasn't exactly a /new/ thing). "No... it's just me and my stupid problems." he muttered the last part, not intending for anyone to hear it.

Antonio raised an eyebrow in concern. "Honestly, I don't mean to pry, but these problems really aren't that stupid to me." He hesitated, then put a hand over Lovi's.

Lovino blushed a little bit. /Damn. He wasn't supposed to hear that./ "They're stupid to me... I think the whole thing is stupid..."

Antonio puffed out his cheeks. "That's all...?" He said, his tone clearly indicating he thought that wasn't all.

"Yes." he says, slightly angry. He didn't want anyone to pry in what happens outside of school. It's none of his business; they hardly know each other anyways.

"Are you suuuuuuuurrrrrreeeee?" Antonio said, oblivious to the slowly angering Italian.

Lovino grits his teeth. "_Positive_."

Antonio bit his lip. He really needed to know. "Reeeeally...?"

"No! I am not 'alright'!" He exclaimed, jumping up from his seat and untouched cup of tea. He left the café, standing outside of it and shaking with anger. _How dare he ask him questions like that! It wasn't any of his business!_

Antonio blinked in surprise and Lovi got up and left. He had no clue he was irritating Lovi. Though really, the Italian was very hot-headed, he should have seen it coming. He stood up, ignoring the stares of the other patrons and waved to the staring lady, and left, finding Lovino tomato red with anger. "Ah... Lovi? I'm sorry..."

"You should be!" The short-tempered Italian exclaimed. "You have no right to interrogate me like that! I do it for a reason, and that reason is my reason alone!"

"Yeah.. you're right..." Antonio looked down. "It was rude of me. I understand if you don't want to talk to me again.."

"_Idiota!_ Of course I'll want to talk to you again! _Bastardo..._" He muttered the last part, looking around. Noticing that no one was there, he took Antonio's arm and dragged him around the corner of the café. "Okay... So, I've never really told anyone this... It's hard for me, so don't get mad. And... Don't call the police. Or I will never talk to you again." He said in a hushed tone. He looked around again, noting that the coast was clear, and pulled up the bottom of his shirt. "My... My dad did this..." He said quietly, tearing up slightly. His stomach was covered in bruises and cuts and burns and anything else that his dad could do.

Antonio's face lit up into a smile at the fact that Lovi still did want to talk to him, then changed to a look of confusion when he dragged him over to a corner. His face quickly changed from confusion to anger/hurt. He wrapped the tearing up Lovi in a tight hug. "Why would he do that to you Lovi? I won't tell anyone, but seriously? That's just... Awful." His eyes burned, which was silly, because it's not like he was the one being abused.

"I-I don't know," Lovino cried. He was in no mood to fight anyone (in fact, he really could use the comfort) so he wrapped his arms tightly around the spaniard. "I-It started when I was thre-e. He always says that I'm a b-bad son and that he hates m-me. I don't know wh-why though. I don't d-do anything wr-wrong."

Antonio rubbed Lovino's back reassuringly. "Nonono Lovi, you're not a bad son... and you've done nothing wrong. It's him that's wrong, you're perfect, okay?" He was shaking. "Okay, you're perfect. So please don't cry, I might cry too..." He buried his face into Lovi's hair, wondering if it was a bad decision. It smelled nice, like tomatoes.

"H-How can you possibly say I a-am perfe-ect? I was so mean to you be-before." Lovino tried to stop crying, but it was hard. He didn't like making Antonio sad, though. He was the only one who cared.

"I was prying, Lovi, that was my fault. You are too perfect. To me." His words were muffled because his face was still in Lovi's hair.

"But you were just showing that y-you cared." his tears had begun to slow down, and his head was hurting from all of the crying he had done that day. "I don't like being mean to you..." he whispered, his head in Antonio's neck. Antonio was much taller than him, so it was easy for him to cuddle into. He was also very warm, but he'd never admit it.

'Awww~! Lovi's so cute!' Antonio thought, lips curling into a small smile as his heart raced. "It's okay Lovi, we all get angry sometimes."

"He's going to be mad... it's so late." Lovino said quietly, closing his eyes. With Antonio, he felt protected, which is something he's never felt before.

"Hmm... you're right..." Antonio was quiet for a little. "Hey, I know! Why don't you come stay with me?"

"What?" Lovino said flatly.

"Why not? It's not like you have a decent place to stay anyways! It's only a tiny apartment and I'd have to sleep on the couch, but that's okay!" Antonio pulled back and smiled. "It'd be like having a roommate!"

"No, no, I can't do something like that to you! And if my dad ever found out... He'd kill me. literally." Lovino said quickly. "And I have a younger brother! But... I guess he'd never find out where I was... we don't go to the same school. If... if I did stay with you, you can't tell anyone! Not one person is allowed to know!"

Antonio put a hand over his heart. "I promise not a soul will know! Aside from my turtles..." Antonio paused. "I hope you don't mind turtles. I do have quite a few~ they're so cute! I live alone, so nobody will find out. I just want you to be safe Lovi."

"No, I don't mind turtles." Lovino chuckled, but turned serious quickly. "If my dad found out, he'd hurt you... I don't want to risk your safety just for mine..."

"Nono, Lovi, I insist." It sounded like he was kidnapping him, but it was with consent, right? Reluctant consent, but still. Consent. "I'll be okay."

"But how will I get my things from home?" Lovino asked, pulling back a little from Antonio.

Antonio paused. "Ah... we can just get you new stuff. Or you can borrow mine, I don't mind!"

"I don't want to waste your money! I'll just go home today, and bring my things to school tomorrow. I don't have too much, so they should fit in my bag, and my dad will be at work." Lovino said, still not entirely sure about moving in with Antonio.

"Okay." Antonio nodded. "Want me to walk you home?"

"I... guess you could take me to the end of my street, if you wanted..." Lovino blushed. "But no further, I don't want to trouble you..."

"Don't worry! I wasn't planning on doing my Spanish work anyways. Lead the way!" Antonio's hand twitched like he was about to hold Lovino's, but he stopped it in time.

Lovino was about to protest, but decided against it. There was no use, anyways. He began leading the way, wanting to move his hand the last few inches, when they got to the light. Lovino stopped, but Antonio kept going. Lovino reached out, "No!" he yelled, grabbing his hand and pulling him back just as a car drove in front of him. "Do I have to keep holding your hand, or can you handle walking across the street!?" he exclaimed, blushing a little at the contact.

Antonio wasn't exactly paying attention when they reached the crosswalk- he was daydreaming about turtles and tomatoes again- so when Lovi suddenly grabbed his hand, he blushed. Then a car went by and he jumped. "Sorry~!" He chirped, still not letting go of his hand.

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><p>So, we hope you liked the first chapter! I think it was great (if I do say so myself) and I'm sure Amity thought it was good as well. Rps usually are.<p>

The next chapter will be up soon, hopefully. Depending on when we finish writing it.

~Maddie and Amity


	2. Chapter 2

Lovino blushed as Antonio held his hand and led them across the street. "_Bastardo_, you don't need to hold my hand..." he blushed.

"True! But it's not stopping me!" Antonio said happily, noting the blush. He wasn't sure if it was from anger or embarrassment.

"This is my street." Lovino said after a few more minutes of walking. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow..."

"Okay Lovi!" Antonio happily said, and released Lovino's hand. "I'll see you tomorrow~" He turned around and started to walk towards his house, wondering how hungry his turtles were, and if his tomato plant is doing okay- did he water it? He paused, and thought. Yeah, he did. He nodded to himself and kept walking.

Lovino walked towards his front door, taking a deep breath, and opened it. "LOVINO! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HOME THREE HOURS AGO." His dad yelled in rapid Italian, grabbing a hold of the front of his shirt. "I'm sorry I didn't know I'd be out, sir!"

Antonio stopped for a minute. Did he hear something...? Angry... yelling. In a different language. It sounded like Spanish, or Latin, which was silly, because Latin was a dead language. Hmmm... what else could sound like that...

Oh, crap. Antonio turned around and quickly ran back to the street Lovi lived on, straining his hearing so he can hear more Italian and find out which house Lovi lived on. 'Which,' He thought to himself, 'is extremely creepy under normal circumstance.'

"YOU SHOULD BE SORRY! YOUR LITTLE BROTHER HAD TO DO ALL OF THE WORK." His dad yelled, throwing a punch to his gut that had him doubled over in pain, holding his stomach. "ANSWER ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" "I-I'm sorry, sir."

Oh, that's where the yelling was coming from. Antonio raced down to the farthest house, and knocked politely on the door. No answer. Figures. The yelling went on. Antonio was mildly terrified, but he opened the unlocked door and raced inside, throwing caution to the wind. "Hey- what the hell do you think you're doing?" He shouted angrily.

Lovino looked at Antonio, frightened. "Antonio, don't do anything you'll just get hurt." "WHAT ARE YOU TWO SAYING!? YOU BETTER GET OUT BOY, IF YOU KNOW WHATS GOOD FOR YOU!" Lovino's strictly-Italian-speaking father yelled. "He's telling you to leave! If you don't go now you're going to get hurt!" Lovino told Antonio. "WHAT DID I SAY!?" His father said, aiming another punch but this time at his jaw.

Antonio grit his teeth and dove, quickly kicking Lovino out of the way- he had no other way to move him, and he felt bad- yelled "GET YOUR SHIT AND GET OUT," and caught the man's punch. He didn't take bull fighting lessons for his entire childhood before he moved to America for nothing, after all. He lunged, pinning him to the ground.

"Lovi! What's going on!?" Feliciano exclaimed from the top of the staircase, seeing some kid he didn't know fighting his father and his brother anxiously scrambling up the stairs. "Nothing, Feli, just go back up to your room! Be careful, alright?" He told his brother in English, not wanting his father to know what he was saying. "Don't tell dad anything, okay? Run back to your room before he notices you." Lovino ran into his bedroom, packing the few things he had (iPod, clothes, and his drawing things) before running back down the stairs with his backpack on his shoulders.

The man was scrambling to get up, but Antonio held him steady. Noticing Lovino, he quickly let go, and in doing so, he got punched in the mouth. "Just so you know, I'm kidnapping your son! With consent, of course." He yelled, ducking out of the way before he could get hit again, roughly grabbed Lovi's hand, and ran out of there.

Lovino followed Antonio (or was dragged by Antonio) away from his house, his father shouting profanities from his front door. "YOU BETTER NOT COME BACK! FILTHY CHILD." He screamed. Lovino teared up slightly in anger, hating his father even more.

"I have no idea what he just said," Antonio puffed, "But you should probably ignore it." When they ran far enough so that the screams could not be heard, Antonio stopped. "Dammit. That was a lot of running."

"It was nothing I haven't heard before..." Lovino says referring to Antonio's previous statement. "Where do you live?" He asks, scared his father will show up somewhere.

Antonio looked around. "About three blocks or so away." He started walking towards the direction of a busy city street.

Lovino nods, following behind him and looking at the ground, thinking. What if his dad found him? What if he hurt Antonio? He had grown to care for the man in a way he's never cared for someone before within the last day, and he couldn't bear to see him hurt.

Antonio held on to Lovino's hand as he wove through the crowd of people. For the first time, he was happy that he lived on a busy street, it'd be much harder to find the two in the middle of a crowd.

Meanwhile, Lovino wasn't looking where he was going, and bumped into a woman. "I'm sorry." he said, slipping into his Italian. "Who do you think you are? Watch where you're going!" she yelled at him, also speaking Italian. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." he replied as she walked away. He continued walking with Antonio, not sure if he could handle being yelled at again.

Toni had no idea what the were saying, so he just thought it was a pleasant Italian exchange. He suddenly stopped in front of a seedy looking apartment. "Okay, here we are! This was the only place that would allow pets and that I can afford." He sheepishly grinned. "Sorry it's not that spectacular." He led Lovi into the lobby.

Lovino smiled. "It looks great." he said, glad to be away from his father. To him, the ocean sounds like a better home than with his dad.

"Really? Thanks Lovi~!" Antonio smiled and hit the 'up' button on the elevator. When the elevator opened, he led Lovi in and hit the '4' button. The elevator was excruciatingly slow. "So..." Antonio awkwardly said.

"Hey, do you know spanish?" Lovino asked curiously. He had spoken Italian in front of him, but he'd never heard him speak Spanish before.

Antonio nodded. "Si~! I just don't use it much." The elevator finally dinged, and Antonio got out. "Come on! My room is this one." He said, pointing to the nearest door to the left.

"I don't want you to sleep on the couch." Lovino said as he was ushered into the bedroom. "I'll take the couch, it's your house."

"Nono, It's okay!" Antonio said, and then he felt a tickling sensation on his neck. "Aha, Tomato, what are you doing on there!" He chirped, distracted, as he plucked the turtle from his neck. 2 other turtles walked in. "Oh, hello there Tomate! And hello there Tortuga~! Meet Lovi!" The turtles started crawling up Lovi's leg. "But seriously though, take the bed." He beamed as Tomato the turtle crawled all over Antonio's face.

Lovino had no idea how to feel about all of the turtles, but he wasn't giving up. "No, I can't! I'd feel awful about it." he whined.

"Are you sure...?" Antonio frowned. "If you're positive... I can just take the couch tomorrow, we'll take turns." Antonio said, frowning slightly. He felt a little bad.

Lovino looks at the bed silently for a few moments. "Or we could... share the bed?" He blushes.

Antonio tilted his head to the side again, processing it, and then smiled. "Yeah, if that's okay with you~!"

Lovino smiled slightly. "Okay... But no cuddling!" He exclaimed as one of the turtles went under his shirt. He lifted up his shirt slightly to take the turtle off of his stomach. "This one is mine, now." He said, keeping it in his hands.

"Hmm..?" He looked at the turtle. "I haven't seen him before!" He scanned the room to see Tomato, Tortuga, Tomate, and mystery turtle. "Huh. That's odd. Okay! What'll you name him?"

"Romāno, after myself. They live a long time, right? It'll be like he's carrying on my legacy." Lovino laughed as the turtle went up his arm and sat on his shoulder.

"Awh~ that's perfect!" Antonio gushed. 'Aaaah, Lovi is soooo cute!' He thought.

Lovino blushed again, smiling. "Hey, can we get something to eat?"

"Oh, of course! I can make tomato omelettes!" Antonio said, walking into the kitchen, and opening the fridge. Half of it was filled with tomatoes, and the other half was filled with normal foods. He took out four tomatoes and two eggs, humming as he began to cook.

Lovino felt awkward, since he had rarely been in a kitchen while someone other than himself cooked. He didn't really know what to do, so he just sat down at the table in the kitchen, playing with little Romãno.

"Can you feed the turtles?" Antonio asked, flipping an omelette. "The food's inside the cabinet over there~." He nodded his head towards a cabinet with a paper taped on it that said 'Materia de la Tortuga', with a crappy doodle of a smiling turtle next to it.

Lovino laughed slightly at the drawing. "Where do I put it?" He asked, looking around for some sort of bowl-type-item.

"Just set a few handfuls of the food on the floor and shake the bag, they'd come." Antonio paused. "Eventually." Antonio the set the two plain omelletes on separate plates and began chopping tomatoes, lazily singing something about decisions.

Lovino did as he was told, shaking the bag and pouring some food on the floor. He set his own turtle by it, and it walked ever so slowly towards the food. "So, how far is the school from here?" He asked, sitting down by the turtle and watching it carefully.

Antonio slid the minced tomatoes on to the plates. "Pretty far. It's a 30-40 minute walk. Oh, omelettes are ready." He said, watching the turtles slowly, slowly make their way to the food.

"Okay," Lovi replied, standing up and walking towards the much taller Spaniard. Seriously, from where he was standing, Antonio was a head taller than him.

The meal was sort of awkward at first, mainly just wordlessly watching the turtles eat while eating, because turtles are fab, until Antonio spoke up. "So... about the music thing? I guess we have more time."

Lovino nods. "I guess so. Though we won't be able to practice it until we have music next."

"Yes, but we can always plan~!" Antonio chirped. "We'd totally have an edge!" He sounded a little like their Polish classmate.

Lovino nods, smiling a little. "So, when do you want to start?"

"Ah... no clue." Antonio smiled sheepishly.

"Well, as I said, I think it should start with a low a and work it's way up. But I also kind of have an idea... Okay, I have this app on my iPod and it has a piano, so I can sort of show it to you." he said, getting his bag and grabbing his iPod.

"Okay!" Antonio said, leaning over so he could see the iPod.

Lovino opened the app, warming Antonio, "It won't sound as good since I can't really play the whole thing, but it's better than nothing." he says, beginning to play with only his thumbs. Once he was finished a bit of it, he frowned. "It doesn't sound too good, but hopefully you get the idea."

"Are you kidding? That was amazing, considering you played with your thumbs." Antonio smiled. The turtles liked the song, apparently, they paused in their munching to listen.

Lovino blushed. "Grazie," He said quietly. "Do you have an idea for the guitar parts?" He asked, locking his iPod and setting it down beside him.

"Hmmmm.." Antonio was quiet. "Yeah! Give me a second." He got up and went to the bed, scooching underneath it and grabbing the battered guitar. Straightening up, he put the strap over his shoulders and started plucking out some notes. "Like this...?"

Lovino nodded. "That sounds nice. We should probably be writing this down so that we don't forget..." Lovi said. "Oh! I've actually got some sheet music paper in my bag for myself, but guitar isn't written the same so you'd have to get some normal paper."

"Yeah, of course." Antonio got his school bag, plucked a pencil from the depths of it, and opened a folder labeled 'Inspiration'. It was filled with blank paper. "Do you need a pen?" He asked, offering a pen that he had gotten from the depths of backpack.

"Yeah, thanks." He said, taking it from him and beginning to write out the notes he had had in his head since that afternoon- shit, it had only been a few hours, hadn't it? To Lovino, it had seem like forever.

"No problem!" Antonio smiled. He write out the notes, and the room was quiet except for the sounds of pencils and pens scratching on paper. He glanced at the clock- it was only 8pm? Holy tomatoes and turtles. Time was slower than Tortuga.

Once Lovino had finished, he put his things back inside his bag and gave Antonio his pen back. "Do you think we can go to bed soon? Or at least I can? I'm pretty tired from today..."

Antonio looked up after a little- he just had to finish that one bar- "Yeah. Okay." He said, biting back a yawn. "Go ahead and change in the bathroom, I'll just change in the room." He smiled.

Lovino nodded, walking into the bathroom and putting on his pajamas that happened to be some random band shirt and black pajama trousers. He had just remembered that, in his haste to get out of that house, he had forgotten a toothbrush or toothpaste. "Hey, Antonio? Do you happen to have a spare toothbrush, and some toothpaste?" He called down the hall towards the bedroom.

Antonio was in the middle of changing, but when he heard Lovi, he opened the door to hear him better, completely forgetting his lack of shirt. He had pants on, thank god, but yeah. Shirtless. "Hm?" He asked, completely oblivious to his shirtlessness.

Lovino blushed heavily, turning his head away from Antonio. "_Bastardo!_ Put some clothes on!" He exclaimed, his blush darkening. "I just asked if you had a spare toothbrush and some toothpaste I could borrow..." he said, embarrassed.

"Hm...?" Antonio looked down and noticed the shirtlessness and blushed. "Oh, I'm really sorryLovijustlookinthecabinetunderthesink." He said rushed and blushing, quickly closing the door behind him.

Lovino, still blushing, went back into the bathroom and took out a toothbrush that hadn't yet been opened, and brushed his teeth quickly. He sat outside of Antonio's room, silently waiting for him to say he could come in.

Antonio hurriedly shoved on a shirt that had Agent T. on it- he was always a fan of the show- and opened the door to see Lovi, still blushing slightly. "Y-yeah, going to brush my teeth now." He said, side stepping Lovi and going into the teensy bathroom in his apartment.

Lovino walked into the bedroom and sat on the bed, thinking for a few minutes, before lying down and trying to fall asleep.

Antonio quickly brushed his teeth, went to pet his turtles goodnight, and hesitated before opening the door. Oh, screw it. Quietly opening it, he poked his head inside the door and walked in. He slid underneath the covers, chirped "Goodnight Lovi~!" And closed his eyes. Trying to sleep. His mind kept focusing on how warm Lovi was~.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Lovino woke up the next morning with an arm around him. "What the fuck!" He exclaimed, jumping up. Everything that had happened the day before came back to him quickly, and he sighed in relief, seeing that it was only Antonio. Wait, it was only Antonio? Hadn't Lovino specifically said no to cuddling?

Antonio, still sleeping, snuggled even closer to Lovino. "Wahh, don't go Mr. Turtle friend~" He sleep mumbled.

Lovino's face rivaled the red of a tomato as he blushed, lying down again and looking at the alarm clock Antonio had beside his bed. It read 3 am, so he tried to fall asleep again. Usually, once he's awake, he's awake for good, but somehow, with Antonio by his side, he could stay asleep forever in his arms.

Antonio smiled in his sleep, almost crushing Lovino in his cuddle.

Lovino woke up due to the basic strangling, wiggling a little bit out of Antonio's grasp. It was now 4 am, but he couldn't sleep when he was worrying about his brother in the hands of his father. Although he tried, it just wasn't working, and he kind of wished that Toni was awake so they could talk. Time would probably go by very slowly now that he was completely awake.

Due to Lovino's squirming, Antonio sleep frowned, then slowly woke up. He noticed he was cuddling Lovino, and blushed, releasing him, hoping he was still asleep and not angry, and flipped over and closed his eyes. 'Dammit, I hope he's asleep...' He thought. He'd never hear the end of it!

As soon as Antonio rolled over and away from Lovino, a feeling of protection he hadn't realized he felt went away, and he whimpered quietly, feeling a few tears come to the surface. If his father caught him awake back home, he would be abused for it, so it was only natural for Lovino to feel unsafe at the moment.

'Shit, he was awake.' Antonio thought at the whimper, and turned around to see Lovi... crying? "You okay?" Antonio whispered.

Lovino shook his head, burying himself under the blankets. "He's going to come and find me, and then he'll hurt us. I don't want him to hurt us..." He said quietly, shaking under the covers.

Antonio felt the shaking and frowned. "Lovi, you're safe now... you're with me, okay? And if he does find us, I'll kick his ass." He hugged Lovino again.

"What if he does what he did to mom to us? We're going to end up like my mom..." he cried, holding Antonio tightly.

Antonio had no idea what had happened to his mom, but right now probably was a bad time to ask. "Nono Lovi, it won't happen okay? Unless he calls the police, and I don't think he cares enough to do that, we won't be found out." He petted Lovi's hair reassuringly. "Hey.. what's this curl do?" He pulled it.

"_NON TOCCARE I MIEI CAPELLI!_" Lovino exclaimed, jumping out of bed. That easily distracted him from his past.

Antonio jumped at the sudden movement. "Wha-huh? Oh my, did I hurt you?"

"No, just don't touch my curl! It's... sensitive..." He blushed a deep red.

"Okay then.. sorry." The room was dark, so he didn't know Lovi was blushing, and he absent-mindedly wondered what the curl actually did.

Lovino cautiously crawled back into the bed and proceeded to go under the covers again. He tried his hardest to fall asleep again, but it was next to impossible, so he looked at the clock. It was now 5 am, so there was no way he would fall asleep again, so he flipped over and took his iPod out of his bag by the bed.

Antonio saw the light and looked over Lovino's shoulder to see the iPod. "Whatcha dooin?"

Lovino shrugs. "I was gonna listen to music, but I guess I forgot my headphones at... uh, my brother's?" He said, not really sure what he should call his old house. "So, I guess I can't..."

"It's okay, just listen to it via speakers." Antonio shrugged. He didn't mind noise whenever he was trying to sleep. If the type of music was awful, he could just shove his pillow over his head or something.

"You're not going to like it..." Lovino said reluctantly. "it's not the type of music you sleep to, strictly speaking..."

"Naaah, it's fine." Antonio smiled. The neighbors usually blasted The Fox at 2 am for some insane reason, so he was pretty sure he could handle it.

Lovino shrugged. "You asked for it..." he said, putting it on shuffle to hear O.G. Loko by Of Mice & Men play through his speakers.

Antonio's eyes widened. "Oh my god. I freaking love this song!" He squealed, hearing the distinctive scream at the beginning. "You seriously listen to this stuff too? Oh my god I can't." He squealed, hands waving in delight.

Lovino smiled slightly, nodding. "I'm surprised; there aren't many of us around..."

"Aaah no way this is great~!" Antonio smiled happily.

Lovino smiled again. "Do you want to pick one?" he asks, unlocking his iPod and offering it to Antonio.

"Oh my god yes." Antonio said, gently taking the music player from Lovino and scrolling through the several songs in the library, eyes lighting up with each song. Finally, he just closed his eyes and picked one. Beautiful Bride by Flyleaf started playing and Antonio gasped. "Oh my god this band." He said enthusiastically, happy in the fact his roommate/crush had good taste.

"What's your favourite band?" Lovino asked, flipping over and facing Antonio who was doing some sort of dance with his hands and singing along.

"Don't make me choose!" Antonio laughed. "Almost all of them really. You?"

Lovino shrugs. "When it comes to pop punk, All Time Low, and for post-hardcore it'd be Pierce The Veil, Falling In Reverse, or My Chemical Romance." He said. "_Especially My Chemical Romance._"

"Aah! They're all so good~! I really do love ACDC, too..." He smiled.

"Oldies, huh? I haven't really listened to a lot of old rock but I like some of it." Lovino said. "It's kind of ironic that we like the same music. We're probably the only ones in the whole school. Except for Arthur, I know he likes it too."

"Aha, they're all strangled with the awfulness that is Justin Bieber." Antonio joked. "I'm glad you have good music taste~!"

"Thanks." Lovino smiled. "My whole family listens to either old rock, alternative, or punk, so it was kind of hard for me not to. Except for my brother, of course, but he's lost in his own world..." Just as Lovino finished talking, Romāno the turtle began climbing up his arm. "How did you get in here?" He asks incredulously. The door was closed, so he must have crawled under. Following him were the several other turtles Antonio owned.

"Aha! Turtles, calm yourselves!" Antonio giggled as the turtles started slowly climbing on the bed. "Well, at least your family listens to good music."

"Well, the family that likes old rock says that punk is garbage, and the family that likes alternative don't like punk, but I guess the family that do like punk are okay." He said. The clock now read 6:00, and the song had changed at least 5 times. He was surprised at how fast the hours had been going by. They would have to get ready soon if they wanted to arrive on time.

"Well, music is music!" Antonio chirped with a smile. "There's so many genres and sub-genres..." He sighed and glanced at the clock. "Crap, we're going to be late!" He threw the covers off and ran to the kitchen.

Lovino stood up, much slower, and grabbed a pair of skinny jeans and left his band t-shirt on, since he didn't really have too many other shirts, and went into the bathroom to get dressed. Once he did and brushed his teeth, he left the room to find Antonio.

Antonio was manically pouring bowls of cereal and setting them on the table, also patting his hair down so it looks decent.

Lovino sat down and began eating from one of the cereal bowls, still not used to having food made for him, and watched Antonio curiously as he ran around the kitchen.

Mumbling to himself, he ran into the room, changed into jeans and a t-shirt, and quickly sat down across Lovi. "Okay, we might be a little bit late. " He said between mouthfuls of cereal.

Lovino nodded, putting his bowl and spoon in the sink and putting on his shoes. He grabbed his backpack from the bedroom and waited for Antonio to finish up.

Antonio quickly brushed his teeth while feeding the turtles, and then put on some shoes. "Okay~! Lets go!" He chirped, grabbing his bag. He held open the door for Lovi.

Lovino walked through the door, waiting for Antonio to lock it, and when he did they made their way to the elevator.

The elevator ride was long, and Antonio felt like it was dragged on forever. When they finally got out, Antonio led the way, chattering away about nonsensical stuff.

Lovino nodded along, surprisingly interested (which doesn't happen too often), occasionally throwing his own input on whatever Antonio was talking about (which was probably turtles, or something along those lines).

30 or so minutes later, they had arrived at the school. "Okay~! I have to get to class... if you have the third lunch block, meet me.. uh, at the oak tree!" He chirped, meaning the large tree in the middle of the school.

"Okay." Lovino said, not completely prepared to spend the majority of the day alone. His first class was math with Arthur, Alfred, and Kiku. He sat with Kiku, though they didn't talk much, while Arthur and Alfred sat in front of them.

Antonio's first class was History, and the majority of it was spent with Gilbert and Francis, mainly just being stupid and not paying attention.

As Lovino stepped out of his second period Spanish class (he was failing, though he didn't seem to care), and headed towards his locker where, thankfully, no one bugged him. He hadn't brought a lunch that day, or any day for that matter, so he just put away his things and went off to find Antonio.

Antonio was sitting under the tree, reading a book and eating a tomato, headphones in and smiling.

Lovino walked towards him, sitting down next to him. "Hi." He said, hoping he could hear him over his music.

Antonio looked up at Lovino and smiled, taking out an earbud. "Lovi~! Did you have fun in your classes?"

Lovino shrugged. "Not really. The only class I really like is music..." He said, taking out his own iPod and playing it quietly.

"Oh, really? My classes were okay~!" Antonio smiled, closing his book and sticking it in his bag. He took a tomato from it. "You forgot to make a lunch! I always have a stash of tomatoes in my locker, in case of stuff like this happening."

"I don't usually eat lunch." Lovino said, accepting the tomato quietly. He'd rather put it in his locker for in case he got hungry later.

"Oh? You'll get hungry!" Antonio fussed.

"I usually get hungry at the end of the day and then go home and make dinner, so I'm honestly not hungry." Lovino said, waving his hands slightly.

"Okay then~" Antonio said, smiling. He paused the music and stood up. "So, what do you want to do?" He asked.

Lovino pouted, holding his hand up in the hopes that Antonio would pull him up. "I don't know..."

Antonio grinned and pulled Lovino up. "Why are your hands always so warm~?" He remarked. "Maybe, we could just walk around?"

Lovino blushed. "Okay," He said, following Antonio who still hadn't let go of his hand. They saw Francis and Gilbert, who were probably laughing at them behind their backs, but Lovino couldn't bring himself to care.

Antonio stuck his tongue out at Gil and Francis- he knew for a fact that Gilbert was crushing on Matthew, and that Francis pretty much just made a move on everybody, so he wasn't worried. "So, what interesting things happened in your class?"

"Ah... Kiku talked, whoa shocker." He said sarcastically.

"Kiku... oh, the Japanese guy?" He asked, a fuzzy mental image in his mind.

Lovino nodded. "Um, I got in trouble for doing nothing, and I got an 80% on a math test we got back today. Other than that, not much..."

"80% is really good~!" Antonio grinned. "Nothing much happened for me, just watching Gilbert and Francis make fools out of themselves." Something hit the back of his head. "Ah!" He turned his head to see them both making kissy faces. He blushed and stuck his tongue out, again.

Lovino turned around, seeing them doing the same, and stuck his middle finger out at them (which he would have done had Antonio not been there as well, though they'd probably end up hurting him). "Man, I hate those guys." He complained.

"Hm? They're pretty nice once you get to know them, though they are idiots." Antonio laughed. "They insist on calling the three of us the Bad Touch Trio."

Lovino smiled. "Well, it's kind of hard for me to like anyone."

"Ah, but you seem to like me~" Antonio teased.

Lovino blushed (he's been doing that a lot lately, damn that tomato bastard). "You're the only one that cares enough to really get to know me..."

"I'm sure others would care." Antonio said, squeezing Lovi's hand.

"I doubt it..." Lovino said, turning around slightly to see that Gilbert and Francis were following them.

"You worry so much~! It can't be healthy. I'm sure that those two idiots over there would like to meet ya!" Antonio said.

Lovino looked at him incredulously. "Are you kidding?" He asked.

"Hm?" Antonio said, worried at the sudden mood swing.

"I highly doubt, and I mean _highly_ doubt, that they would want to talk to me." He said seriously.

Antonio shrugged. "Okay then..." He seemed so set on this for some reason.

"I can assure you, if you tried to get us to talk, one of us would end up being a dick to the other, but it'll probably be me, though I can't help it." Lovino nodded, not even noticing that their hands were still together.

"Ah, those two do bring out the inner dick in people." Antonio said, and then realized how wrong that sounded and blushed. "Shit, that sounded wrong."

Lovino laughed. "Naw, I'm just a dick in general." He said, smiling.

"Can't disagree." Antonio said, and laughed. "I'm kidding, you're really great."

Lovino blushed, deciding not to deny it. He'd never win that particular fight. "I think the bell's going to ring soon, we should go back to the tree." He said quietly, blush still evident on his cheeks.

"Yeah, okay!" Antonio said, tugging Lovi's hand over as they turned around. Gilbert and Francis couldn't be seen, but Antonio could faintly hear kesese-ing.

They walked towards the tree, talking about stupid stuff once again, when they arrived. "Do we have art together next?" Lovino asked.

Antonio nodded. "Yeah, I think so. Funny, I never noticed you in class before!" He smiled. He suddenly realized they were holding hands. He blushed and let go.

Lovino blushed, both because they had been holding hands and because he _had_ noticed. "I'm pretty sure we sit on opposite sides more often than not, so I don't think you would have."

"Yeah." Antonio nodded. Also, Gilbert was in the class, and he usually spent the time laughing at the pathetic-ness that is Gil's attempt at art. "Are you any good at art?"

Lovino shrugged. "I don't know..." he said quietly. the truth was, he was quite good at it, though his father had planted it in his brain that he was nothing compared to his brother.

"I'm sure you're really good!" Antonio said happily.

Lovino smiled. "You always seem to think the best of me." he said as they walked back to the school.

"Well, you are Italian, isn't that the stereotype?" He joked, laughing.

Lovino rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm not always drunk and bad at driving, so I don't think that's how it works."

"Touché." Antonio said, as they reached the art room.

Lovino walked in with Antonio right behind him, seeing Gilbert waving at Antonio in hopes that he'd sit with him. Lovino expected him to sit with Gilbert, not himself, so he began his journey to the desk at the far back corner.

Antonio grinned at Gilbert, and grabbed Lovi's hand, dragging him to the empty desk next to where he usually sat. "Hi Gil!"

Lovino rolled his eyes at Antonio, sitting down despite himself. As long as no one asked him anything, he'd be okay. He preferred to stay silent- a wallflower, if you will.

"Soooo, can I see your paintings?" Antonio asked curiously once the extremely burnt out teacher just said to paint whatever. Gilbert was busy painting what he proclaimed would be 'the awesomest self portrait ever'.

"Um... Okay, I guess..." he blushed, opening his art folder up and pulling out the several canvases he had painted on. Some were finished, some weren't.

"Wooow! Those are so good!" Antonio said, marveling at the bright painted canvases.

Lovino, still blushing, asked, "Are you and good at art?"

"Good at art? No, I'm most certainly not..." He said, opening his portfolio, revealing mainly unfinished sketches. Gilbert leaned over, momentarily paused in painting something, Antonio couldn't tell, and snickered.

"Dear God 'Tonio, you are pretty bad." He said.

Lovino smiled. "They're certainly... Interesting?" He laughed.

Antonio laughed. "I've long since accepted how awful my art is." He turned to see the now-dripping silver grey and red mess. "Uh, Gilbert?" He said, and Gilbert looked at it and yelped.

"Dammit! That's so unawesome!" He said, and turned back to it, and Antonio started laughing even harder.

Lovino smiled slightly, pulling out a blank sheet of paper and just drawing something random.

Antonio hummed to himself as he pretended to draw, but in reality, just watch Lovi draw when he wasn't looking. He felt wet paint his the back of his neck and turned, Gilbert looking way, way too innocent.

"Zhe awesome me totally can tell you're crushing on zhe unawesome Italian~" He teased, only loud enough for Antonio to hear.

"Shut up Gil." He retorted cleverly. He then continued watching Lovino, and Gilbert grinned. Francis would get a kick out of this.

Eventually, the teacher told them to start some sort of project where you have a partner and you're supposed to draw each other. Lovino hated this, not really sure who he was going to be with. Even if Antonio were to choose him, Gilbert would never allow it.

Gilbert shoved Antonio over to Lovino with a smirk. He needed to set the two up. Antonio stuck his tongue out as Gilbert ran over to the quiet Canadian kid in the corner and insisted that they were partners now. Antonio rolled his eyes. "So, partners?"

Lovino nodded, smiling. He was usually put with the other 'losers' that couldn't find a partner, either because their friends ditched them, or they actually don't have any friends.

"Okay, now that everyone is in a group, you will have today and next class to finish your portraits. I don't want them to be perfect, but a little effort would be nice." Their art teacher said. "If you need any extra time or if your partner doesn't show up on one of the days, tell me. If your partner isn't here _today_, then you can work on any overdue projects..." Lovino drowned out the rest of her speech, considering he had nothing overdue and he _lived_ with his partner.

Once the teacher was done instructing, Antonio picked up his sketchbook. "Sorry if it ends up being awful~" He apologized. "Do you wanna go first?"

"I'm sure it'll be fine." Lovino laughed. "Sure, if you want." he said, pulling out another blank canvas.

Antonio smiled even wider. "Kay~" He sat up straight and tried to hold still.

As Lovino drew (tried to, at least) Antonio would giggle, and wiggle, and mess up any chance Lovino had at making a half-decent portrait, but that was okay. Because Lovino laughed too, and he could have easily stopped his hand from shaking so much, bit he didn't really want to.

Antonio felt bad for squirming, but he couldn't help it. In fact, he was getting weird looks from others. But Lovino was laughing too, so he couldn't help but giggle. Gilbert looked on with a smirk as Birdie sketched him. He was shipping it.

Once Lovino finished his sketch, he asked, "after you draw me, can I try this again?" he laughed, holding up his 'masterpiece' next to Antonio's head. He could slightly see the resemblance.

Antonio looked at Lovi's drawing, and was rather impressed. "Ah, that should be pasted up on the fridge~" He chirped. "Sure!" He looked at Lovi, concentrating on his face, and began sketching out the face shape, albeit awfully.

Whenever Antonio would stare at Lovino for longer than two seconds, he'd want to burst out into laughter. He controlled that tiny part of him (to an extent) so he didn't move too much, but sometimes it was difficult with the faces Toni would make.

Antonio, after sketching for a while, finally proclaimed he was finished. He then took a good look at his portrait of Lovi and burst into peals of laughter. It looked like a 6 year old had done it.

Lovino looked at his picture, saying, "It's not that bad." and trying to suppress his laughter, which he apparently did very well. Antonio was now looking at him as if he were from another planet, and that was when he really laughed. At first he was laughing at the picture, and then he was laughing because Antonio was laughing, and that just made him laugh even more.

Antonio laughed until he got the hiccups. In between hiccups, he giggled. "Haha..." He chuckled, wiping away tears. The teacher glared at them, and looked like he was going to say something, but the bell rang. Antonio shakily stood up, offering a hand to Lovi to help him up.

Lovino took it, still smiling as he picked up his things. He now had English for a double, so he followed Antonio out the door.

Antonio waved goodbye as he made his way to Math.

* * *

><p>AN I feel like I should specify that I am writing Lovino and Amity is writing for Antonio. Reviews are nice.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:

It was now the end of the day when he had music again with Antonio, so they could finish their song. He made his way to the class, arriving a few minutes early so he could play something random on the piano while he waited for the rest of the class to get there.

Antonio walked into the music room. "Lovi~!" He chirped. "Were you playing the Dramatic Song just now...?" He asked. "Also, look! Gilbert gave me this movie he thinks I'd like because it has tomatoes in it!" He plucked a movie case from his bag. "It's called Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!" Just by looking at the cover, it was obvious it would be one of the crappiest movies ever.

Lovino smiled slightly. "Yeah, I was. Also, that looks awful." He laughed.

"Yeah, but it's about tomatoes! We should watch it~" Antonio chirped. "That song is the best Tobuscus song, by far."

Lovino laughed. "My favourite's The Sideburns Song." he said as Antonio got his guitar.

"That one's good too." Antonio agreed, sitting down once he got his guitar. "Can you play the song again...?" He asked. He remembered how it went, he just wanted to listen to it again.

"The Dramatic Song?" He asked, moving his hands in the correct position and waiting for confirmation.

Antonio nodded his head happily.

Lovino began to play the song, laughing slightly as he hummed along. His teacher probably actually thought he was playing something serious.

Antonio listened to Lovino play as seriously as possible- without the vocals, it was an extremely serious sounding song. When Lovino finished playing, Antonio looked him in the eye and started to burst out into laughter again.

Lovino laughed alongside him, their teacher smiling slightly without them notice (he probably thought they were together, the bastard!). "We should probably work on our song now." He said, laughing slightly.

"Okay~" Antonio said. He was waiting for this all day, he wanted to hear the song in full glory. He bent over and dug in his bag, finding the piece of paper he wrote the notes on. Reading it over, he grinned slightly. "It went like this, right~?" He plucked out the notes.

Lovino nodded. "Yeah, that's what you wanted, right?" he said, pulling out his own sheet music to practice.

Antonio nodded. "Yep~! This is going to sound so great..." He said. "Play your part?"

Lovino began his part, waiting for Antonio to join in. By now, the rest of the class, save for a few stragglers, had arrived and everyone could hear their song.

Antonio waited until the part when he was supposed to start playing, and then began. Both of the instruments complimented each other in a beautiful way, and Antonio felt stares. He ignored it however, and just continued to play.

As the song neared it's end, the guitar slowed and the piano picked up, as they had discussed before. By the end of the song, they were both at the same tempo, andante, until it stopped.

Antonio looked up to see the rest of the class in a stunned silence, and then Alfred went and hit him appreciatively on the back. "Dude, that was totally awesome!" Antonio winced- that hit was really hard.

"Thanks, but it really was mainly Lovi~" He replied, rubbing his back.

Lovino, blushing shook his hands wildly. He didn't like attention (unless it was from Antonio, but he doesn't talk about that), and he especially didn't want the whole class looking at him as they were. The girls glared (except for the ones that had a crush on Lovino that he would forever be oblivious to), and the men were either annoyed or shocked. All in all, this was a nightmare for him.

Antonio, perfectly oblivious to Lovino's embarrassment, smiled at him. Mr. Roma clapped his hands. "Okay, back to work." The class then went back into the loud chatter.

Lovino frowned, trying to hide his blush. "Why would you tell them it was me? You did it too, and that was so embarrassing." he complained.

"Yes, but it was mainly you~," Antonio said. "you deserve some credit!"

"I don't like the attention that brings me." he whined, distracting himself by playing some random songs on the piano.

"Oh... sorry." Antonio said awkwardly, plucking a tune absentmindedly.

"It's fine," he blushed. "Should we go again?" he asked.

Antonio nodded, happy that Lovi didn't seem mad at him anymore. "Okay~!"

Lovino smiled slightly, starting to play his piano part.

Antonio played the guitar part along with him, but then suddenly stopped. "Hey, wait. What's this song going to be called...?"

"...I don't know... Do you have any ideas?" He asked, turning around on his seat to face Antonio.

"Hmmmm..." Antonio said. "Something serious, maybe..." This was really hard.

"I agree." Lovino said. "I have no idea, really. We should think about it for a little bit. Wait!" He said suddenly, causing Antonio to jump slightly. "What if it was called To Build A Home?"

Antonio's eyes lit up. "That's a really good name!" He was thinking among the lines of 'Turtle Adventure', but yeah, To Build a Home is way better.

"Thanks." Lovi blushed again. He looked at the clock, seeing that there was only ten more minutes left of the period and then they could go home. "Surprisingly, I'm actually kind of missing Romāno."

"I know, right!?" Antonio exclaimed. "I hope they're okay and not hungry or anything! Do you think Planty The Potted Plant is okay...?" He asked, thinking about the tomato plant he forgot to water.

Lovino raised an eyebrow. "You name your plants?" He laughed.

Antonio blushed. "Just the one!" He insisted. It was the only plant he had, and he heard somewhere talking to plants helped them grow... and he did get lonely sometimes. The point was, the plant was a good listener. And good listeners needed names.

Lovino smiled. "Sure," he laughed. "That's fine with me; no judgment."

Antonio grinned. "Okay, that's good~" He said, and the bell rang, a shrill ringing noise barely registered above the loudness of the room. Suddenly, the room was a flurry of activity, everyone running out the door. "Alright, I need to get to my locker. Meet me at the front of the school!" He chirped, standing up.

Lovino nodded, standing up as well and closing the top of his piano. He put any of the sheets of music away in the seat and tucked it in, grabbing his books and binders and walking out of the classroom to his locker. He got his bag packed, and began making his way to the front of the school.

Antonio scuttled over to his locker, quickly getting his stuff before anyone could come, as per the norm, and went to the front of the school, listening to music. He then spotted Lovino. "Loooooovvvviiiii!" He called out, waving and getting funny glances.

Lovino smiled at him, waiting for him to get closer when they started walking. "Hey, give me one!" He said, referring to the headphones.

Antonio took an earbud out and passed it to him. "Okay!" He said, standing rather close so Lovi can listen to it comfortably.

Lovino hummed along to the song that had been playing (that he knew for a fact was Green Day), anxious to get home already.

The walk was silent, spent enjoying the music- and also, for Antonio, the close proximity- and after a bit, they got home. Antonio burst through the door. "Tuuuurrrrttttlllleeees! We're home!" He called out, holding the door open for Lovi.

Lovino laughed slightly, seeing the turtles make their way ever so slowly towards them, and he picked up his turtle.

The turtles started climbing up Antonio, which tickled, and he went to go water Planty. "Hello Planty! I have niiiiice fresh water for you!" He chirped, pouring the water in. "Fusosososo~"

'Interesting laugh.' Lovi thought, setting Romāno on his shoulder and going into the kitchen. "Can I have something to eat?" He asked Antonio.

Antonio sprang up. "Of course, let me make you something!" He said happily, walking into the kitchen.

"Oh, thanks..." Lovino said awkwardly. "I'm still not really used to this whole 'being made food' thing..."

"It's no trouble! Cooking is fun~" Antonio said, getting out stuff to make tacos.

Lovino shrugged, sitting down at the table again and taking of about random stuff. "Oh, should I feed the turtles?" he asked suddenly.

"Yeah, if that's okay!" He said.

"Okay." Lovino nodded, getting the food and pouring a little on the ground. He proceeded to shake the bag, though the turtles were already very close by, and put the bag away again.

"Thanks Lovino!" Antonio happily said. He was currently cooking the meat for the tacos. "You like beef, right?"

"Yep," he said, taking out his iPod. "Hey, what's your Internet and password?"

"Oh, the internet is Espana, and the password is 'password'." Antonio said, chopping up onions and blinking rapidly.

Lovino rolled his eyes. "Nice," he said sarcastically. "Don't you think someone will guess that?" He asked, typing it in and checking his multiple accounts.

"Of course not! It's too obvious~" Antonio said, casually chopping tomatoes.

"Okay, whatever." He said. It wasn't his money, he just hoped no one would take advantage of it (assuming someone knew).

"Yeah!" He quickly ripped some lettuce to shreds and assembled the tacos. "Dinner's ready!" He told Lovino.

Lovino stood up and took his plate thankfully. _"Grazie."_ He said quietly, sitting down again and starting to eat his food.

Antonio munched happily on his taco. The silence stretched out until it was almost unbearable. Antonio just said the first thing that came to mind. "Soooo, who do you liiike?" He asked, sounding completely 9 year old girl and mentally hit his forehead. He blushed. "Never mind."

Lovino blushed a bright red. How are you supposed to answer that? Especially since it was_ him._ "Who do you like?" He asked curiously. There must have been a reason for him to ask him a question like that, so he figured he liked someone as well.

Antonio choked. "Nobody." He said unconvincingly, after finishing coughing, blushing.

Lovino rose an eyebrow. "Are you sure, because it doesn't seem like it..."

"T-totally! Hey, why are you interrogating me on this, I asked you first!" Antonio joked- mainly to distract Lovino from the topic.

Lovino blushed again, looking down. "I don't like anyone..." He lied, taking another bite out of his taco.

"Bachelor buddies, right?" Antonio said, mood bright again.

"Speaking of bachelors," Lovino begins. "Where are your parents?"

"Hm...?" Antonio said, momentarily looking up. "I got kicked out." He wasn't about to mention it was because he came out to them. "My big brother João felt bad, so he's paying for the place~"

"Why would a parent kick out their own child?" Lovino asked incredulously.

"...Reasons." Antonio said vaguely, not wanting to tell Lovino- what if he was homophobic?

Lovino was about to say something, but realised that he wasn't in a place where he could talk when it came to parents, so he let it go. For now, though he'll probably be back to pestering eventually.

Antonio sighed in relief- thank God he dropped it, and finished his taco. He glanced up at the clock. It was fairly late. "I have some homework~" He said, standing up and bringing his plate to the sink. "Wanna watch the movie while I'm studying?"

"Okay," Lovino nodded, putting his own plate in the sink and heading to the living room.

Antonio popped the DVD out of the case and stuck it in the old DVD player. The commercials for movies that came out decades ago began rolling, and Antonio spread out his History- they were learning about Spain taking over Southern Italy. He grinned.

Lovino rolled his eyes at his homework, focusing his attention to the t.v. He was pretty sure the movie would be horrible, but Antonio seemed to think differently, so he didn't mind watching it.

The commercials ended and the movie began. It was utterly awful. Antonio just ended up laughing at the pure awfulness. "Those tomatoes are made up of foam!" He snorted, all intention of math completely forgotten.

"I told you it'd be awful!" Lovino exclaimed, laughing slightly himself.

"I didn't think it'd be this bad." Antonio mused.

"You're right. I thought it'd be worse, actually." Lovino said seriously. It was really that bad. "Can we go to bed now?" he yawned.

"Mmmhm." Antonio said, reviewing a short story he had written about killer tomatoes. It really was that late if he was doing crap like that. He unceremoniously shoved his stuff in his bag and stretched. "I'm going to brush my teeth!" He said, walking over to the bathroom.

Lovino nodded, getting his bag and taking out his pajama pants. He put them on and waited for Antonio to leave the bathroom so he could brush his teeth as well.

Antonio brushed his teeth, absentmindedly thinking about various stuff. He spat, rinsed, and knocked on the door to the bedroom.

Lovino opened it, letting Antonio in and walking into the bathroom. He quickly brushed his teeth, went to the washroom, and then went back into the bedroom (he's still not comfortable with calling it _their _bedroom).

Antonio quickly tugged on shorts and a shirt, snuggled into the bed, and closed his eyes. "Night~"

"Night." Lovi said, crawling under the covers also. He and Antonio were pretty close, but they weren't touching. Hopefully he wouldn't get into the same state the next day as he had that morning.

Antonio sighed and snuggled into the pillow, smiling peacefully, back to Lovi.

Lovino woke up the next morning with Antonio's arms around him again, but he didn't mind. He was facing Him and his face was in Antonio's chest (he also didn't mind that).

Antonio slowly woke up, cuddling Lovino, which in his opinion was the best way to wake up. He stayed like that for a bit, pretending to be asleep, but then eventually let him go and stretched. "Morning!" He said chipperly.

"Morning," Lovino smiled, sitting up.

Antonio checked his phone to check the time- 10 am. "Hey!" He happily said, "It's Saturday!" He fell back on the pillow. "Ahh~ I can sleep more."

Lovino rolled his eyes, "I'm gonna make some breakfast." he said, beginning to stand up.

"Okay~!" Antonio said happily, snuggling back into the pillow. He had made the meals for a while, so he didn't feel bad. Sighing, he pulled the blanket back up and drifted back to sleep. The bed did feel kinda empty, though. He sighed again, suddenly not able to fall asleep with that realization. Sitting back up, he wandered into the kitchen. "I couldn't fall back asleep~" He said, trying to sound a little defeated.

"Sure," Lovino laughed. "I bet you just missed my warmth." he smiled, cracking the eggs on the pan.

Antonio blushed. _"No!"_ He said embarrassed, though it clearly sounded like he did.

"Whatever you say, Antonio." he laughed, popping some toast in the toaster. "Do you want some?" he asked.

"Is it okay?" Antonio asked, walking up behind Lovino to get a closer look at the cooking food. "Smells nice~" He remarked, absentmindedly.

"Yeah, it's fine. I don't mind." Lovino said, rolling his eyes slightly. "You have been making me food for the past while. What if I cook on weekends and you cook during the week?" He asked, putting the eggs on a plate and starting the bacon.

"Okay!" Antonio happily agreed, and wormed his way out of the kitchen. Taking the bag of turtle food, he shook it and dumped some out. "Morning tortugas!" He called out. He then went back into the kitchen, grabbed a cup and filled it with water, and went to Planty the Potted Plant, pouring the water in while soothingly talking to it.

"Food's ready." Lovino said, putting butter on the toast and taking the bacon. "How many eggs do you want?" he asked, setting the plates and silverware on the table.

Antonio looked up from his plant and smiled. "One's okay!" He stood up and walked to the table. "So, Lovi, what do you wanna do today?"

Lovino gave him his food, shrugging and sitting down.

Antonio ate his food, thinking. "It's a nice day, so we can do something outdoorsy!" He said, marveling on how good the eggs were.

Lovino groaned. "Outdoors?" he whined, getting a drink of water.

Antonio shrugged. "If you don't want to do that, we can do something else."

"Ugh, if you really want to... I just don't enjoy physical activity." he said.

"If you don't want to, it's fine!" Antonio insisted, thinking of other things they could do. "We can go and do other stuff!"

"Hey, do you have any board games?" Lovino asked suddenly, finishing off his food.

Antonio thought. "I only have Monopoly." He said. It was fun to play with Gil and Francis. It's surprising that their friendship wasn't destroyed yet.

"I'm fine with that." Lovino nodded.

"Okay! I'll get it out!" Antonio said, picking up his clear plate and Lovino's and sticking it into the sink. Humming, he went to the bedroom, digging under the bed until he found the box. Pulling it out and wiping the small layer of dust that had settled on it, he set it up on the table. "I call the cute little puppy piece!"

"I'll have the TV, I guess." Lovino laughed, opening up the box.

Antonio quickly got out the board and organized the cash and cards. "Oh, we need music!" He got out his phone and put it on shuffle. It was nice, not arguing over the song. Gilbert always listened to German rap, and Francis listened to Celine Dion. When he thought nobody was hearing. The music wafted through the air as he rolled the dice to see who'd go first. He got a one. "Dammit. Okay, you're first."

Lovino rolled the dice, getting a five so he moved forwards five spaces, landing on a chance. "Hahahaha," he said, picking up one of the cards. "Some dumb asses are building something. Pay $200." Lovino groaned, putting the money in the bank.

"Fusoso~" Antonio chuckled, rolling his dice. Two. It was a little painful. He passed up on buying the pathetic little brown property.

Lovino rolled again, getting a ten. He moved ten spaces, landing on another chance. The card told him to go to jail. "Chigi!" he exclaimed, moving his piece to the jail cell.

"Better luck next time~" Antonio said, rolling the dice and getting a four. He then bought Oriental Avenue. "Yay~!"

"Well, I'm in jail so I can't really do anything. It's your turn again." Lovino said, annoyed.

Antonio stuck his tongue out at Lovi childishly while rolling the dice. Yet another four. He moved the teensy puppy over to the 'Just Visiting' square. "Hello Lovi~" He said.

"Hello, _bastardo_." Lovino said, rolling his eyes as well as the dice. He got a two, moving to the electricity space. "FUCK YOU, I AM BUYING IT!" He exclaimed, putting his money in the bank and taking the card.

Antonio shrugged and smiled. "Fine by me~" He said. It was, in fact, fine, until he rolled a two and landed on the damn space. Antonio frowned and handed over the money. "That was lucky, okay?"

Lovino smiled. "Hey, I've been in jail _and_ lost a bunch of money. I deserve this!" He exclaimed, rolling for himself and landing on the train. "I will also buy this." He said. "I always go after the train stations."

Antonio stuck his tongue out at Lovino and rolled, luckily cruising right past the railroad with a satisfied smirk, and landed on the second orange property. "Call it!" He chirped, sticking the cash in the bank and plucking the property card. "How do you feel about your life decisions now, Romano?" He teased, rolling the 'R' like he always did.

"I feel fine, _Spain_." Lovino said, rolling the dice. He landed on Antonio space. "Chigi!" he growled, giving him his money.

Antonio victoriously took the money, laughing slightly. "My turn~!" Rolling another 2, he landed on 'Free Parking.' "Well, nothing to do there." He remarked casually.

Lovino rolled, getting a two as well and moving to the community chest. He picked up a card. "Yes. I helped old people, so I get $100." he said happily.

"Glad to see you're doing something good in life for once." Antonio teased, rolling and getting an impressive six. "Not to shabby~" Unfortunately, he passed over the railroad he was planning to steal from Lovino, but bought the yellow property. You can make a killing with those.

"Haha, your devious plans have been foiled!" Lovino exclaimed, rolling a four and landing on a red property. "I am going to buy it." Lovi said.

"Okay, go ahead. Those properties are for total wimps~" Antonio said, rolling the dice vigorously. He landed on the water utility and happily bought it. "There goes your monopoly chance!" He laughed, in a way that was vaguely gloating.

"Shut up, Antonio. I could beat your ass any day!" Lovino said, rolling the dice to get a nine and land on the Go Directly To Jail space. He groaned, moving his piece to the jail again.

"Oh, what was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of me _kicking your ass!_" Antonio gloated as he rolled the dice and landed on a chance space- where he then had to sacrifice $50 to Lovino for a birthday present, or whatever the hell the card said. He huffed and gave the money to Lovi.

"Haha," Lovino said, taking the money. "You go again."

Antonio cracked his knuckles and rolled the dice, landing on a green space. "Eh... nah." He said, shaking his head.

Lovino rolled, getting a threw and landing on the second pink space. He bought it, knowing that he already had a few places on that part of the board. It would be even harder for Antonio to go past that section without giving Lovino some money.

"Stop buying all the properties over there, dammit." Antonio mumbled, rolling the dice and landing on an open railroad. He took one glance at Lovi and threw the money in the bank, laughing victoriously.

Lovino pouted, rolling the dice again and getting a seven and landing on the free parking.

Rolling the dice, Antonio landed directly on Go. Collecting the correct amount of money, he smiled. "One lap down~"

"Are you _trying_ to annoy me, because is working." Loving complained, rolling the dice and getting snake eyes. He moved to the chance space, picking up a card that told him to pick up $300.

"Bitch, I might be." Antonio replied in reference to the annoyed complaint, landing on the second blue space- Vermont Ave. "Oh! One away from a monopoly!" He said, taking the property card.

Lovino rolled, getting two fives and moving to the second green space. "I will buy it." be said, taking the card and putting his money in the bank.

"Hey, go ahead." Antonio said, swearing slightly when he landed on Lovino's recently acquired pink space. He gave the money, huffing.

Lovino got snake eyes again, groaning. "Nooooo!" He exclaimed, moving his piece to the jail yet again for getting doubles three times in a row. "This damn television can't stay out of trouble." He said, his accent becoming thicker due to his annoyance.

Antonio's eyes lit up. "I guess it shows a lot of... _crime shows_!" He exclaimed, way more proud of that pun than he should have been. Antonio rolled yet again and landed on the orange space he had previously bought, much to his relief. That place was like a minefield.

"Go again." He sighed. "I haven't even made it to Go, yet!"

Antonio rolled the dice, landing on an unbought red. He bought it, purely for the purpose of Lovi not being able to get a monopoly. "That TV must have some really slow cable." He snickered, happy in his pun skills.

"You wanna not?" he whined, rolling and getting a three. He landed on the second pink. "I alreADY OWN THIS ONE!" He exclaimed.

Antonio rolled and landed on the ever daunting 'Chance' space. "Go To Jail." He read, furrowing his brow. "Dammit." He moved the puppy to the space, pouting.

"Haha, look who's in the pound!" Lovino mocked. "How's that for a pun."

"You should be pun-ished." Antonio retorted sarcastically. His puns were way better.

"Haha." Lovino said sarcastically, rolling the dice. He got a three, so he moved to the first orange space. "Do you own this one, because if not, I'd like to buy it."

Antonio shuffled through his cards. "Dammit, I only own the second." He mumbled.

Lovino bought the place, laughing happily. "And you're finally in jail, so I get to go again!" he said, rolling for the second time and getting a five. He landed on the first red space, but decided against buying it. Unless, of course, Antonio already had it.

Antonio kept a straight face as he rolled and landed on Lovino's railroad. Muttering darkly, he passed the colorful bills from his dwindling stock to Lovino.

Lovino laughed, rolling again and getting a four. He moved to Antonio's railroad (what a coincidence) and gave him his money.

"Hah! Antonio said, snatching the money and fanning himself with it. He rolled the dice and landed on a chance card. "Go to Connecticut Avenue, collect Go." Antonio grinned and collected the $200 dollars, promptly buying the third blue space. "OH! MONOPOLY, BITCH!" He yelled, quickly buying three houses and placing them on the squares, upping the prices by that much.

Lovino rolled his eyes. "Whatever." he complained, rolling and getting an eleven and moving to chance. "This has to stop!" Lovino exclaimed, handing Antonio $200. The card said to pay all of the players that amount (he was glad there was only one other person).

"No it doesn't!" Antonio said, rolling the dice and buying the last empty pink with his newfound cash.

"I hate you." Lovino scowled, rolling again. He got a two, landing on the tax space. He payed the money, sighing in annoyance.

"Oh, you know you love me~" Antonio chided, taking the dice from him and rolling. Raising an eyebrow, he placed his puppy on his own orange property. "Wow, I'm pretty lucky, Romano!"

"I'm finally passing go." Lovino said, rolling a four and picking up $200. He moved to Community Chest, thankfully picking up $50.

Antonio landed on the free parking again, and after careful consideration, bought another batch of houses for his light blue monopoly. "You better hope you don't land there!" Antonio laughed.

Lovino frowned, rolling the dice. He got a six, growling in frustration as he moved to the second blue. "I'm almost bankrupt!" he complained.

Antonio accepted the money, smirking. "Looks like we know who the winner is~!" He taunted, fanning himself with the money. Antonio rolled and landed on an unoccupied red, which he gladly bought.

Lovino rolled his eyes as well as the dice, getting a two and moving to the jail. 'That wasn't so bad.' he thought, though he probably just jinxed it.

"You end up there a lot, Lovi!" Antonio happily said, rolling the dice. Landing on the second yellow space, he bought it. "This is fun!"

"Shut up, Antonio." Lovino said, annoyance clear in his voice. He rolled again, getting a 12 (wow), and moving to chance. "You've got to be kidding me!" He exclaimed, moving back to one of Antonio's blue spaces and paying the hefty price. He was almost out of money at this point.

Antonio made a clicking noise and winked, making little finger pistols. He was then promptly sent to jail. It didn't bug him too much, however. He was still kicking Lovi's butt.

Lovino rolled, getting a three. "Nooo!" He exclaimed, moving to Antonio's third blue space. He payed the price and was now bankrupt.

Antonio victoriously fist pumped. "Awwww yeah!" He cheered, high fiving himself. "I'm more financially responsible than yoooooou!"

"Shut up!" In his anger, Lovino flipped the board, pieces flying everywhere. He laughed at the look on Antonio's face.

At first, Antonio could only gape, but when a piece hit his head, he came to again and started to snicker. "You're jealous~" He teased, laughing.

"I'm not jealous, I'm annoyed." he said, crossing his arms. "Let's do something else... Do you have any movies?" He asked.

"Uhm... I have horror movies." Antonio said, also thinking about his hidden romantic comedy stash. "They're mainly in Spanish, but I could be able to set up subtitles?"

"That sort of kills the horror part when it says 'someone screams' in brackets... Hey, do you have Batman!?" Lovino exclaimed. The Batman films have been his favourite since he was a kid.

Antonio laughed. "Yeah, I have the Batman movies!" He said happily. What person didn't? "We could watch those!"

Lovino smiled. "Okay!" He said excitedly, sitting on the couch while Antonio put in the movie. "Which one are we watching?"

"Batman Begins." Antonio replied, popping the dvd into the battered player. Straightening up, he scooched next to Lovi as the years old previews began to play.

Lovino nods, tucking his feet in underneath him. Once the home page opens, Antonio presses play, and the movie begins with thousands of bats, and a little boy calling, "Rachel!" He smiles. He hadn't been able to see any Batman movies for a while, so he was glad that he could again.

* * *

><p>ONCE AGAIN, reviews are nice. Thanks for the review on the last one, Dragon Slayer's Girl! Also, To Build A Home is a real song by The Cinematic Orchestra. Go listen to that because it's very good, yes.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five:

Antonio smiled slightly and watched the opening, fiddling with a spare couch pillow. "I love this movie~" He remarked happily.

Lovino tried to focus on the movie, but he could practically feel Antonio beside him. It was very distracting. He checked the time, seeing that it was already six pm. He regretted checking, because he was both hungry and tired now.

Antonio focused on the movie, enjoying the many plot twists. He had seen them coming, because he's watched it a lot, but still. It was pretty exciting.

Lovino slumped over, laying down with his head on the arm of the couch, but the movie kept him from falling asleep.

Antonio noticed Lovino half asleep and poked him. "Wake up~!" He softly chirped, chuckling to himself.

"Hm?" Lovino said, sitting up. He looked to the screen to see that the movie was half way through (how did that happen?) and he hadn't been paying attention whatsoever.

Antonio laughed, thinking once again that Lovi was adorable~. "Nothing, Lovi. You were just about to fall asleep." He said, petting his hair.

"Oh," he said, confused. He hadn't even realised what he was doing. "Do you mind if I go make some food?" he asks as Batman walked into the screen.

"Go ahead!" Antonio chirped, still absentmindedly playing with Lovino's hair.

"Do you want any?" he asked, blushing as Antonio's hand ran through his hair.

"Hm? Sure, if that's okay." Antonio said happily. It has been a while since they last ate. "You have soft hair." He remarked, still petting it happily.

Lovino blushed. At least he wasn't pulling at his curl... He stood up, walking into the kitchen. "Is pasta okay?" He asked, beginning to pull out the ingredients.

"Yeah!" Antonio happily said, following Lovino into the kitchen. He couldn't cook Italian to save his life, so it'd taste nice.

Antonio's eyes widened. "Shit!" He rushed to the turtle drawer, quickly opened the drawer and took out the bag, shook it vigorously, and put a larger amount of food on the ground. "_Tortugas_!" He called. "_Lo siento..._" He apologized, as the turtles made their way to the food.

"Had you fed them at all today?" Lovino asked, put the noodle-sticks into the boiled water and letting it sit.

"Yeah, this morning! But the poor things didn't have lunch..." Antonio fussed eyes on the turtles, though the turtles seemed ok.

"I'm sure they're fine." Lovino laughed as the sauce finished. He turned off the stove, waiting another minute for the noodles, and then turning that side of the stove off as well and pouring out the water. "Finished!" he said, taking out two plates. "Help yourself."

Antonio patted Tomato on the head- he was the closest turtle- and stood up, walking towards the kitchen and smiling when he saw the food. "You made this?!" He said in surprise, and realized that sounded stupid. "No, wait, of course you made it, it just looks really impressive." He quickly corrected, taking a plate and putting some pasta on it.

"It's nothing. Feliciano's is better." He said seriously, taking a bite of his modest amount of pasta.

Antonio took a bite of his and smiled. "Well, this pasta still is delicious." Antonio happily reassured Lovino.

"Thanks..." Lovino said, blushing and taking a bite himself.

"Just speaking the truth!" Antonio smiled.

Lovino smiled a small smile back at him. "I'm never going to get used to someone telling me they actually like something I've done..." He said quietly, blush still evident on his face.

Antonio raised an eyebrow. "Well, you'll get used to it soon enough, what, with your cooking." He complimented Lovino, resisting the urge to lean over and poke his cheek. "You're bluuuushing!"

"I am not!" he exclaimed, his blush only becoming redder. "It's just hot in here, is all..."

"Are you sure? Because I find it kinda cold." Antonio teased, smirking.

"Of course you would! I was cooking, and you're like a furnace anyways!" Lovino said, not even noticing what he had said. It just slipped out.

Antonio burst out into laughter. "Did you just call me _hot_?" He laughed, setting his head on the table to hide his now blushing face.

"Haha, very funny." Lovino said sarcastically, crossing his arms. Was it possible that his blush had grown? He didn't think it was. "You know that's not what I meant, asshole." (That's what he meant, dammit).

"Heh..." Antonio said, straightening up when his face no longer felt hot. "Thank you for the compliment, anyways, Lovino. You don't look half bad yourself." He said, blushing slightly.

"Shut up, idiot..." He said quietly, hiding his face behind his hands.

Antonio chuckled and returned to his pasta, smiling. Lovino totally thinks he's hot. He could just hug him~!

Lovino finished his food, putting it in the sink and sitting back down, waiting for Antonio to finish himself and thinking about how embarrassing that whole ordeal had been.

Antonio finished up his pasta under Lovino's reproachful glare, trying not to laugh. "Thanks for the pasta~!" He chirped, getting up and setting it in the sink. Switching the lights off, he tilted his head to the side. "What now?"

Lovino shrugged. "I'm tired, but it's only 7, so if there's anything you want to do..." He said hesitantly. Knowing Antonio, he probably wants to go on some sort of turtle-hunting-adventure-type-thing-that-Lovino-isn't interested-in-but-could-be-fun sort of thing.

"Hm..." Antonio said, clearly in deep thought. "Wanna play Truth or Dare like some 6 year old girls?" Antonio suggested. The few times he played that, he had been questioned by the police, but he wasn't drunk and with the others this time, so it should be okay.

Lovino rolled his eyes. "Okay. You go first." He said, sitting down on the couch with Antonio right behind him. "Wait, do you wanna grab some chips and pop or something?"

Antonio apologetically smiled. "I kinda don't have any... but if you want, we could go out and get some!" Usually, Antonio was fine with just eating tomatoes as a snack. It was healthier, and equally delicious.

"If you're okay with it, we can. I dunno, I'd be fine with some milk or something, really..." Lovino says awkwardly.

"No no no, we can totally go! Come on!" Antonio said, tugging Lovino's shirt collar. Some fresh air would be nice. "It'd be fun!"

Lovino was dragged upwards by Antonio, so he stood and put on his shoes and a light sweater since it might be a little chilly. "So... Where are we going?" He asks, watching Antonio get ready.

Antonio shrugged on a green sweater. It matched his eyes. "There's this convenience store that's like, 5 or so minutes away." Antonio answered, tugging on some battered sneakers.

Lovino nods, following Antonio out the door. Antonio locks it, and they're on their way to the store, chatting about everything and nothing as they usually do.

When they made it to the convenience store, Antonio held the door open for Lovino, smiling. "After you~"

Lovino had a small smile as he walked into the store and made his way to the back to look at the different types of chips. "We should get Doritos!" He said happily.

"Oooh, the Nacho Cheese ones are the best!" Antonio said, following Lovino into the store, the bright lights hurting his eyes.

Lovino nods, picking up that bag. "Should we get any more?"

"Well, that should be enough for just the two of us..." Antonio said. "Wanna get Coke? Not the drug, the soda." He said, jokingly adding the last part in on a whim.

"How will I get my next fix?" Lovino muttered, walking to the fridges and grabbing a bottle of coke.

"The struggle is real." Antonio dryly said, rolling his eyes. "Ooh, buy two, it's on a discount."

"Okay," Lovino said, picking up another bottle and cradling it in his arms. "Is there anything else?"

Antonio thought for a little- alcohol would get them questioned and bring them unwarranted questions, and that was all he could think of. "Nope."

"Okay," Lovino nodded, walking up the cash register. "Oh, here's the four dollars for that tea a few days ago." he said, pulling out the money and handing it to him.

Antonio shook his head. "No no, it's okay!" He said, in reference to the 4 bucks. "It was on me."

"No, but if I can't pay you anything for this I want to pay you back at least." Lovino complained.

"...Alright..." Antonio said hesitantly, mainly because the lady at the register was giving them death glares. He accepted the money and used it to pay for the snacks.

Lovino rolled his eyes at the woman, taking one of the bags and walking to the door with Antonio behind him.

As they stepped outside, Antonio shivered slightly. "It's colder than before, huh Lovi?" He laughed, rubbing his hands together.

Lovino nodded, putting his hands in his sweater pockets. "I'm glad I brought a sweater."

"Well, good for you that your sweater is actually warm." Antonio said mockingly, rolling his bright green eyes, regretting the thinness of his.

Lovino smiled, putting an arm around Antonio's waist jokingly. "You always say I'm warm. Guess I could share my heat a little." he laughed.

Antonio laughed as Lovino was suddenly pressed up against him. "See! Much better!" He chirped, ruffling Lovino's hair. He was thankful it was rather dark- his blush wasn't as visible.

Lovino left his arm there (if you asked him he'd say he forget or hadn't noticed, but he's such a liar), as they grew closer to the apartment.

Antonio smiled, swinging the plastic bag with the snacks in it, feeling pleasantly warm, though it was cold outside. They made it back to the apartment, and Antonio clapped his hands together, still thinking about Lovi's arm around his waist. It was unexpected, to say the least. Unexpected, but totally welcome. "Okay! Truth or Dare!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Lovino said, moving his arm so he could take off his shoes. "Let me grab some bowls first." He walked into the kitchen, grabbing one large bowl and two glasses for them.

Damn, he moved. Antonio kept his face level as he plopped down on the couch, thinking of random dares. He knew for a fact that he was not picking truth. Nope. Not gonna happen.

"Okay, so who's going first?" Lovino asked, sitting down beside Antonio and opening up one of the coke bottles. He poured them both a glass and put the chips in the large bowl.

"Hmmmm..." Antonio said, twiddling his thumbs. He then held his hand out in a fist, beaming. "Rock paper scissors?"

Lovino nodded, putting his own hand out. "Best two out of three?"

"Sounds fair." Antonio said, strategizing best methods of winning.

"Okay. One, two, three-" Lovino said. They immediately exclaimed, "Rock, paper, scissors!" and he won the first with a rock, and Antonio had paper.

"Dammit." Antonio swore, crinkling his brow. He tried again, but Lovino won again. "Fine... I pick dare."

"Um... I dare you to..." Lovino looked around in thought for a few moments before he smoked evilly. "Lick the carpet." he said as he ate a few chips.

Antonio raised an eyebrow. "Best you got?" He then proceeded to lick the carpet, very quickly. Right after, he took a sip of soda as if to clean his mouth. "Oh God, that was awful, ew ew ew." He said, taking another sip.

"I hope you get rug burn on your tongue." Lovino laughed. "Your turn."

Antonio stuck his tongue out. "I probably will, you jerk. Truth or Dare?"

Lovino laughed. "Dare." He said after a moment of thought. He'll probably get something bad, but it's better than being asked something personal. He'll have to choose truth eventually, though.

"I dare you to... hmmm..." Antonio said, trailing off. "Okay, next time we go to school, you have to randomly bear hug a person of your choice." Antonio commanded. Hopefully he'd remember on Monday.

"Deal. I got this." Lovino said easily enough, taking a sip of his pop. "Okay, truth or dare?"

"Hmmm. I don't wanna get a disease. Truth, I guess?" Antonio said, wondering how bad of an idea this was.

"Hm... If you could be in a band, who would you want to tour with the most and who would you want in the band? It could be anyone." Lovino asked curiously.

"Hm... you, because you're good at piano..." Antonio said, thinking. "Gilbert and Francis, because they actually play instruments and sound pretty okay, and maybe... that one guy Gil always talks about, he calls him Birdie, says he can sing well?" Antonio said, though it sounded more like a question. "We could tour around Europe! That'd be fun!"

Lovino nodded. "What band would you want to tour with?"

A very long silence. "This is hard!" Antonio exclaimed. "Maybe... maybe... hm." He furrowed his brow. "You know, if The Beatles were still alive and in their prime, I think I'd choose them." He decided. Whew, that was hard. He should have just chose Dare.

"Hm... interesting choice." he said thoughtfully. "Okay, your turn."

"Truth or Dare?" Antonio asked- of course, it's not he like could say anything else- taking a sip of soda.

"Um... truth." he replied cautiously, hoping he wouldn't ask anything too personal.

Antonio mischievously smirked, eyes sparkling. "You can't answer this with a question!" He said happily. "Who do you like?"

Lovino sat quietly for a few moments, mustering up the courage to whisper, "...You..." almost silently.

Antonio blinked. Wow, he didn't expect Lovino to answer that! He must really trust him~! Of course, the only problem was that Lovi said it so quietly, Antonio had no clue what he said. "I'm sorry, who?"

"...I said you!" Lovino exclaimed after another moment, running off to the bedroom in fear of what Antonio was going to say.

Antonio sat there in shock. Lovino liked him? Wait... really? He quickly stood up, realizing that Lovino had left, and was almost skipping to the bedroom. "Lovino~! Really?" The happiness in his tone was obvious.

Lovino didn't say anything, though he didn't know if it was because he was scared or physically couldn't talk. He was extremely nervous, and quite obviously had trust issues, so it was hard for him to admit to anything.

Antonio hesitantly opened the door, confused at the silence. "Well... I really like you Lovi... so..." He awkwardly said, trailing off.

Lovino couldn't bring himself to look at Antonio- he was too awkward and scared. It didn't matter that Antonio liked him back. It was the whole 'trust' thing he had a problem with.

Antonio bit his lip. Well, it looks like Lovino didn't like him after all... damn. He tried to ignore the crushing waves of disappointment and forced a smile. "Oh, I guess I misheard... awkward."

Lovino looked up quickly, blush evident on his face. "N-no, I like you too... I'm just... scared." he said quietly.

Antonio smiled, grin so wide it threatened to break his face. He wrapped Lovino in a sudden bear hug. "Are you serious? Why? This is the greatest!"

Lovi's blush only seemed to darken. "Wh-why do I like _you_?" he asked in complete confusion. "Why do _you_ like _me_?"

"No, silly, why are you scared? I'm right here, you know." Antonio said, slightly confused at why Lovino would say he was scared. He could feel Lovino's cheeks heat up, it was that bad. He chuckled. "I like you because you're really great! I can't explain it, it's just..." He paused. "To put it in an eloquent way, 'awesome'."

"I'm scared because I've never felt this way before... the only people I've ever loved left..." Lovino replied quietly, tucking his head into Toni's neck.

Antonio smiled. Lovino's breath tickled~! He held Lovino tighter. "Don't worry, I won't."

"...Weirdly enough, I trust you..." Lovino told him, putting his own arms around Antonio's middle.

Antonio closed his eyes and sighed in content and relief, propping his head up on Lovino's hair. "Good."

"We never finished playing Truth or Dare." Lovino laughed quietly, pulling his head back a little so he could look at him better. "I bet my drink's gone flat by now."

"Yeah, most likely." Antonio gently laughed. "Okay, so was it my turn? Because I pick dare."

Lovino thought for a moment. "Um... I dare you to go brush your teeth and then kiss me because I am not kissing someone who licked a carpet." He laughed.

Antonio mischievously smirked and quickly pecked Lovino's lips. He pulled back. "Nope, consider it payback."

Lovino scowled. "Ew, now _I've_ got to brush my teeth." He complained. "Also, it's your turn to ask... Even though I didn't ask the first time..."

Antonio flashed a winning smile at Lovino. "Okay, truth or dare?"

"...Truth, I guess." Lovino answered. They were still standing in the middle of the bedroom, so it was kind of weird, but a good kind of weird.

"Hm... I'll make this one easy." Antonio said. "If you wake up one day and find that you're invisible, what would you do?" He asked, grinning.

"That's not _easy_!" Lovino wined. "I would... Wear sunglasses and walk around outside naked so people would only see the sunglasses."

Antonio laughed. Yep, sounds like something Lovino would do. "Their faces would be funny."

Lovino nodded. "I can see Feli's look of horror at the paranormal." He smiled.

Antonio rolled his eyes. "Gilbert would be pissing himself."

"Imagine Alfred!" Lovino exclaimed, laughing. "He may act all important but he gets freaked out so easily... Anyways, truth or dare?"

"Oh my, that Arthur kid he hangs around with all the time would probably never let him forget that." Antonio said, laughing. "Hm.. dare, I guess?"

"I dare you to... go to the living room and grab our snacks while I wait in here because I'm lazy." Lovino dared, falling back and onto the bed (well, he would have if Antonio's arms weren't still around him).

"Ugh. Fine." He let go of Lovino and went to the living room and grabbed the food that the turtles were slowly making their way to. He gently picked each one up and set them far away from the place where the junk food was. "Silly." He chirped, picking up the food. He nudged his way back into the bedroom and set the food on the bedside table. "Done! Okay, truth or dare?"

"Um... dare." Lovino said, sprawled out on top of the bed.

Antonio blushed. Lovino looked nice. "Hm. Dare you to prank call anyone on my contacts." Antonio said, fishing his phone out of his pocket and throwing it to Lovino. He then sat on the edge of the bed.

"Easy." Lovino said, scrolling through the different people and deciding on calling Francis. Once the Frenchman answered with a prestigious, "/Bonjour/." Lovino began yelling in rapid Italian. "_Damn bastard! Who the hell do you think you are, answering with your stupid French accent and stupid French language that nobody understands!_" He exclaimed. The phone was silent for a moment, until Francis said, "I know it's you, Lovino." And hanging up. Lovi looked at the phone for a few moments, before bursting out into laughter, giving Antonio back his phone.

Antonio took the phone back, chuckling. "Who did you call?" He asked. "And what did you even _say_?"

"I called Francis and called him a bastard that nobody understands." He laughed. "Somehow he found me out..."

Antonio laughed. "The Italian was a bit of a dead giveaway, Lovi." He shuffled closer.

Lovino shrugged. "Hey, for all he knew it could have been that angry Italian girl that yelled at me when I first came here a few days ago."

"Your voice is really high pitched~!" Antonio teased. "Kidding."

"It's alright, I already know it's very low. Yours is higher than mine!" he said defensively, putting up his hands.

"...Not by much." Antonio mumbled defensively, crossing his arms over his chest and over-dramatically pouted.

"Whatever you say. Can we go to bed now?" Lovino asked, sitting up slightly from his position on the bed.

Antonio glanced at the clock, and it really was pretty late. "Yeah, we probably should, huh?" He casually remarked.

Lovino nodded, humming in agreement. "I'm just going to brush my teeth and such." he said, standing up and heading to the bathroom.

Antonio nodded and watched Lovino leave, and then giddily grinned and changed into some random pajamas. He was so happy~!

Once Lovi was finished, he walked back into the room and jumped onto the bed face first. "Goodnight,"

Antonio went to go and brush his teeth, and then laid down next to Lovino, slightly nervous. "Night~!"

Lovino blushed brightly, flipping over so that he was facing Antonio and pulling up the blankets. He hesitantly cuddled into him as he would if they weren't... "...What are we?" he asked quietly.

Antonio snuggled into Lovino. "Not sure... whatever you want, I guess."

"I can't choose something like that! I don't even know what I want." Lovino whined, tucking his head into Antonio's neck.

Antonio smiled. "How about..." He couldn't bring himself to say it for some reason, it was weird. "More than friends?" He hesitated.

"Okay..." Lovino nodded. There were a lot of things he wanted to say but he's Lovi, he'd never be able to say them. So he settled for that. More than friends.

Antonio smiled and pressed his lips on to Lovi's head. He closed his eyes and sighed.

* * *

><p>Thank you to Sleepery, Miss Akiyata, and Dragon Slayer's Girl for reviewing! We love them.<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

Lovino woke up the next day in the same position as he had been the night before, except facing the opposite direction. But that was okay with him.

Antonio slowly woke up, still not moving from his position. "Morning."

"Morning." Lovi replied, closing his eyes again in the hopes of getting a little more sleep. But of course, that didn't happen, so, sighing in frustration, he flipped over to face Antonio again.

Antonio grinned. "How are ya?"

"I'm tired, how are you?" Lovino replied easily.

"Peachy~" He chirped happily. "You know, peachy is a weird word." He remarked lazily, lost in random thought.

"Mhm, tell me more?" Lovino requested tiredly, sort of interested in what the crazy spaniard had to say.

"It's like, people may not even like peaches, but they still have to feel pleasantly peachy although they dislike peaches?" He said, ending it like a question. He furrowed his brow. "It was easier to explain in my head." He complained.

"I won't even get you starte on peachy keen." Lovino said, fighting back a smile.

"Ugh, that's worse. Why can't it be tomatoey keen?" Antonio asked, hint of annoyance in his voice.

"I don't think that'd be too popular. Besides, it's just an expression." Lovino replied, starting to wake up a little more.

Antonio snuggled into Lovino. "Yeah, I guess so. But still."

"Do you want me to make some breakfast?" Lovino asked, becoming increasingly hungrier.

"Yeah, sure~" Antonio said happily, releasing Lovino and slowly sitting up, stretching.

Lovino nods, standing up and heading for the kitchen. He pulls out the ingredients for pancakes and begins to make them.

Antonio sat there for a bit, then sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Slowly getting out of the bed- he was never a morning person-he padded to the kitchen. "Whatcha cookin'?"

"Pancakes." Lovino answered simply, stirring the batter before pouring it onto the pan. "How many do you want?"

"Is two okay?" Antonio asked, looking over Lovino's shoulder at the cooking pancakes.

Lovino hummed in confirmation, flipping the two already on the pan over.  
>Once he finished all of the pancakes, he put them on two plates and brought the maple syrup and butter onto the table. "They're ready." he said.<p>

Antonio smiled. "Okay, give me a second." He walked over to the turtle cabinet and opened the drawer. He took out the bag of food, and proceeded to feed the small reptiles. When that was done, he flounced back to the table and took a bite of his pancakes. "They're really good!"

Lovino blushed. "Thanks." he said, taking a bite himself. He was definitely not looking forward to the awkward conversations that were to come if they were 'more than friends'.

Antonio smiled. "No problem~... so what do you wanna do today?"

Lovino shrugged. "I don't know, what do you want to do?"

"Hmmm..." Antonio said, thoughtfully chewing on a bit of pancake. He swallowed. "Oh, we can go for a walk!"

"Okay," Lovino replied. "Is there a movie out that we could see as well maybe?"

"Hm.. I dunno what's out right now, anything you've been wanting to watch?" Antonio asked, twiddling his thumbs.

"I don't know, why don't we check online or something?" Lovi asked, picking up their plates and putting them in the sink.

"Okay!" Antonio said, nodding a 'thank you' when Lovino picked up his plate. He went to grab his extremely old and crappy laptop and turned it on. After waiting a bit, he opened up Chrome and typed in 'Movie Listings.' on google.

Lovino sat down beside Antonio and looked through the movies. A lot of them were for kids, but a few that looked alright. "How about this one?" He asked, pointed to one of the movies.

"Oooh! That one does look good." Antonio said, scanning the synopsis.

"Okay, what time do you want to see it at? Also, we have to find out how to get there." Lovino replied.

"Hmmm.. it shows at 4:00, that sounds like a reasonable time. We can bike there?" Antonio suggested. "I only have one bike, but we could alternate or something? Or you can ride it with me, like they do in those old fashioned movies."

"Will we both even be able to sit on it?" Lovino asked. "We aren't exactly two five year olds."

"Hmm... we'll figure something out." Antonio said, tapping his fingers on the table. "Do you have any ideas...?"

Lovino shook his head. "I haven't ridden a bike since I was three, and that was with training wheels..."

"Oh, that probably would complicate things... maybe we could just walk the mile or two?" Antonio suggested, thinking hard. "It'd be hard, but fun."

"Okay. That could be the walk you wanted to go on, unless there's a specific place you wanted go to?" Lovi asked.

"Nope! We should probably start walking now." Antonio said, standing up. "You know, so we aren't late."

Lovino nods, getting up himself and going to the door. He put on his shoes and his jacket from the night before and followed Antonio out the door.

"This is gonna be fun, huh Roma?" Antonio happily said, briskly walking.

"I'm going to get stomach cramps..." He replied, already feeling one coming on. "I'm out of shape." He whined.

Antonio slowed down. "Happy?"

"No, but that's better." He said, forcing his smile back.

"Great~!" Antonio took Lovino's hand happily.

Lovino blushed a bright red but didn't take away his hand as they walked, nearing a light.

Antonio hummed happily. Awh, he made Lovino blush~!

Lovino noticed Antonio looking at him, and his blush only darkened. "Shut up, _bastardo_." He said. "It's embarrassing when you watch me like that."

Antonio laughed. "Sorry Lovi~!" His happy tone betrayed how he wasn't sorry at all. He made an exaggerated point of looking away.

"_Idiota..._" Lovino muttered, face flushed as he looked away. They still had about a mile and a half to go, and his stomach ache was long since forgotten- what with Antonio's hand and all.

"Ehe... you're so cute." Antonio chuckled, enjoying making Lovino blush.

"Stop it!" Lovino exclaimed, putting a hand to his face to hide a little bit of his blush.

"Hmmm..." Antonio said thoughtfully, as if he was actually considering stopping. "Nope."

Lovino whined, face only growing redder. "I probably look like a tomato right now, bastard!"

Antonio chuckled. "Yeah, you do!" He teased, sticking his tongue out at Lovino.

Lovino scowled, smacking the spaniard on the arm. "Shut up..."

Antonio smirked. "Make me." He teasingly said.

"Not in public, you weirdo..." Lovino blushed, turning away in embarrassment. He looked up, glad to see that they were almost there. He could see the movie theatre now.

"Hush. You know you love me... oh, hey, we're pretty much here!" Antonio looked at his watch. 3:45. "Wow, we made pretty good time."

Lovino nodded. "Are we getting any snacks or anything? Because if we are, one of us should get them and the other should get seats."

"I wasn't planning on buying food, because buying it at a theatre is as expensive as sacrificing your firstborn, but if you'd like something we can get it~." Antonio said quickly.

Lovino rolled his eyes. "You're so dramatic and no; I don't want anything."

"Alright!" Antonio happily said. "We should probably pay for the tickets."

Lovino nods, following Antonio into the movie theatre. Once they pay they walk into the correct showing room and find their seats. "Time for the commercials." Lovi sighs.

"Commercials suck." Antonio said matter of factly. "Unless there's a fangirl in the theatre and a trailer for the thing she fangirls over comes on."

Lovino nods in agreement. "I _am_ the fangirl."

"Really?" Antonio asked, imagining Lovino freak out over some chick flick. He had to supress a giggle.

"Shut up, don't pretend like you haven't." Lovino rolls his eyes, hitting Antonio once again.

"That was one time!" He insisted, rubbing his arm where Lovino hit him.

"Then why are you judging _me_!?" Lovino exclaimed (quietly, of course), as the opening to the movie was about to begin.

"I don't know, it's just funnier to imagine you doing that!" Antonio said, voice hushed.

"Once again, shut up." Lovino complained.

Antonio complied, though he stuck his tongue out at Lovino when he thought he wasn't looking. He turned and looked at the giant screen, allowing himself to start to get lost in the movie.

Once the movie was finished, Lovino turned to Antonio. "What did you think?" He asked as the credits started to roll.

Antonio smiled. "It was great~!" He chirped. It really was.

"I thought so too." Lovino said quietly, standing up. "Do you think we could get a bottle of something because I'm really thirsty and would rather not walk two miles that way."

"Sure~!" Antonio said happily. "Whatcha want to drink?"

Lovino shrugged. "A coke, I guess?"

"Yeah, alright!" Antonio chirped. "Uh... we should probably make our way to the place where we get the snacks." He said, just realizing they were still in a quickly emptying theatre.

"Okay," Lovino said, following Antonio out of the large room and towards the cash register.

Antonio subconsciously held on to Lovino's hand as he ordered the soda for him.

Lovino was starting to get used to this, but he still had a small blush on his face as he took the drink from the cashier.

Antonio grinned at Lovino and paid for the drink. "Come on, we have a long walk ahead of us~"

Lovino nodded, following Antonio out of the theatre. He took a sip of the drink, offering it to Antonio afterwards.

"Thanks!" Antonio happily said, taking a sip and passing it back to Lovino.

Lovino put the lid back on the drink and hesitantly took Antonio's hand in his with a large blush on his face.

Antonio realized that Lovino had actually taken initiative this time and beamed brightly. "Lovi~! You held on to my hand~"

"Don't mention it." Lovino said, looking down to hide his face.

Antonio swung their hands. "Why not~?"

"Because I'm not used to doing anything like this, okay?" Lovino blushed, embarrassed with himself.

Antonio just beamed and said nothing. Lovino was such a cutie.

As they were walking, Lovino noticed a place he hadn't the walk before. "Hey, can we go in there? Please?" He asked, pointing to a graveyard.

Antonio blinked. Why did Lovi want to go to a graveyard? "Of course!" He chirped.

Lovino nodded, tugging Antonio along behind him. "I wish I had brought flowers or something..." He muttered, turning abruptly past a tree towards a few gravestones. He reached a specific one, sitting down in front of it and patting the ground beside him for Antonio. The gravestone was written in Italian. Lovino hadn't been there in years.

Antonio let himself be dragged over and sat down next to Lovino in silence. He peered at the gravestone. This was obviously somewhere special for Lovino. "I'm sorry, I can't read Italian..."

"It says, 'Here lies Adina Arianna Vargas, a soldier who served her country well. 1968-2000. The world is a richer place because she once lived..." Lovino said, feeling sad and nostalgic. "I was three when she died... That's when everything started back at home..."

"Oh." Antonio didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry." He was silent for once.

"Don't apologize!" Lovino exclaims, shaking his head. "It's not like it's your fault or anything..."

Antonio just nodded and held on to Lovino's hand.

Lovino sighed. "I guess we should probably go..." He said quietly.

Antonio nodded. "_Si._"

"_Ciao, madre._" Lovino said, putting a hand on the stone before standing up slowly.

Antonio stood up. "Goodbye Mrs. Vargas... I'm sure you're a wonderful woman."

"Okay, let's go..." Lovino said, taking Antonio's hand again and beginning to walk out of the graveyard. He didn't even blush- he was lost in his thoughts.

Antonio walked with Lovino in silence.

"Do you want me to make lunch when we get home?" Lovino asked quietly.

"I can if you don't want to." Antonio said. The mood was sombre.

"No, I don't mind..." Lovino said, shaking his head. "Ugh. We have school tomorrow." he whined.

"Damn." Antonio cursed. "School sucks."

Lovino nodded. "It does..." he said as they neared their house (damn, that was weird to say).

Antonio sighed. "Did we have any homework?"

"From the classes we have together... not that I know of." Lovino said, walking behind Antonio into the apartment. "Though we should probably work on our song again soon."

"That's good." Antonio said, flicking the light switch on. "We could work on it after lunch!"

Lovino nodded. "Well, it's going to be a little more like dinner." he said, looking at his iPod and seeing that it was already seven PM. "That was a longer movie than I thought."

Antonio leaned over Lovino's shoulder and peered at the iPod. "Damn. That did take a while."

Lovino nodded. "So, what should we have for dinner?" he asked, stepping into the elevator with Antonio.

"Hm~..." Antonio said, rocking on his feet. "Whatever you want Lovino. I'm not picky~!"

"Um... are nachos okay?" Lovino asked, waiting for Antonio to unlock the door.

"Yeah! Nachos are great~!" Antonio happily said.

Lovino nodded, heading for the kitchen. "How much do you want?" he asked, taking out the ingredients.

"Oh... I'm not that hungry." Antonio said. "However much you want~!"

"Okay," Lovino said. After about twenty minutes or so, their food was done. "It's ready." Lovi said, putting the two played on the table and pouring them both a glass of the pop from the night before.

Antonio looked up from the turtles he was playing with. "Alright, Lovi!" He gently patted each of them on the head with a happy smile, fed them, and finally went over to the table. "It looks good!"

"Thanks." Lovi blushed, eating a few of them. As he was eating, Romano climbed up his arm slowly. "Hey there," he smiled at the turtle.

Antonio smiled. "If you'd like, turtles can eat tomatoes." He said, grinning. Romano looked hungry.

Lovino nodded, taking a bit of tomato from the nachos and holding it up for the turtle who slowly (so slowly) pushed it's head out of the hole and took the tomato from his fingers.

"Awww..." Antonio said, happily watching the turtle Romano. "So cute~!"

Lovino has a tiny smile as he sets the turtle back on the ground and continues eating his food.

Antonio returned to the nachos, a blissful smile on his face. The turtles were almost as cute as Lovi~!

Once Lovino finished, he put his plate in the sink and played with Romano while he waited.

Antonio finished his food and placed the plate in the sink as well. "I'm pretty tired... can we go to bed?"

"Okay," Lovino nodded, standing up and following Antonio into... _their_ room (that was still kind of uncomfortable for him to think about) and grabbed his pajama pants.

Antonio took shorts and a t-shirt, and went into the bathroom to change and brush his teeth.

Once Lovino changed, he waited in the bedroom for Antonio so he could brush his own teeth. In the meantime, he played random games on his iPod.

Antonio finished up, skipping into the room. "Okay, go ahead Lovi~!"

Lovino nodded, a small smile on his face as he walks into the bathroom and gets ready. Once he finishes, he goes back into the room and jumps on the bed beside Antonio. "We never practiced our song..." he said tiredly, rolling over to face him.

Antonio paused. "Damn, I forgot..." He smiled sheepishly.

"It's alright... I think we have music together tomorrow anyways..." Lovino said quietly, cuddling into Antonio.

Antonio smiled and wrapped his arms around Lovino. "Yeah, we do."

"Okay," Lovino blushed brightly at the embrace, tucking his head into Antonio's neck and closing his eyes.

Antonio happily sighed. "Night, Lovi~"

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><p>RIGHTO! Thanks to Sleepery, Miss Akiyata, and Dragon Slayer's Girl once again for reviewing!<p>

THE TURTLE'S NAME IS ROMANO BUT MY PHONE WAS CHANGING IT TO SOMETHING ELSE SO YEAH.

Antonio was written by the wonderful LemonYellowCoat/Amity and Lovi was written by myself.

We'll thank the people that reviewed for the last chapter each time, but that's it. It takes a long time to figure out who reviewed an earlier chapter when we've already thanked people.

Alright, please review.

-Maddie and Amity


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven:

A/N I'M SO MAD AT MYSELF I COMPLETELY RE-EDITED LAST CHAPTER INSTEAD OF THIS CHAPTER UGH HOW IDK I'M SORRY FOR PUTTING YOU THROUGH THIS BS CAN I NOT DO ANYTHING RIGHT!? After putting the same chapter up twice, I have a whole bunch of crap on it when I finally put it up! Ugh.

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><p>Lovino woke up the next morning at six, sitting up and shaking Antonio awake, saying, "Get up. We've got to get ready for school."<p>

Antonio groggily flipped over. "Dammit."

"Come on, Bastardo. Don't make me get the turtles." Lovino threatened, pulling the covers off of Antonio.

Antonio gasped and snapped awake at the sudden cold. He slowly sat up. "Don't get the turtles..." He yawned, still pretty tired.

Lovino rolled his eyes, getting out of bed and heading to the kitchen to pour them both a quick bowl of cereal. He set Antonio's in front of him as he came out of the bedroom slowly.

Antonio wordlessly entered the room, sitting in front of the bowl with a nod of thanks.

Once Lovino finished, he put his bowl in the sink and went to their room to change quickly. When he was done, he went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth.

Antonio slowly finished his cereal, waking up, and then went to change. Finding a decent outfit, he put it on, and brushed his teeth. He didn't even bother brushing his hair. He fed the turtles and watered Planty.

"Are you ready?" Lovino asked, picking up his backpack and slinging it over one shoulder while he put on his shoes.

"Si!" Antonio said, straightening up and gently patting Planty. He grabbed his schoolbag from the chair and shoved his shoes on. "Let's go!"

Lovino nodded, following Antonio out the door and towards the elevator. "What do you have first?" He asked.

Antonio wrinkled his nose. "Gym. You?"

"Math," Lovino sighed. "At least you're good at sports! I stopped taking gym as soon as I could."

"It still sucks." Antonio said, sighing. Gym was not his favorite.

"At least you're not weak." Lovino said as they stepped out of the elevator and towards the door of the apartment.

"Yeah, but you aren't either, Lovi~" Antonio comforted as they started walking out on the street.

"Yes I am, I got stomach cramps after walking for five minutes yesterday." Lovino complained, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Ehe~" Antonio laughed, poking him on the cheek. "Still cute."

Lovino blushed brightly. "Shut up..." he whined, punching Antonio lightly on the shoulder.

"Never!" Antonio said, grabbing Lovino's hand and laughing.

"Bastard..." Lovino muttered, allowing atoning told hold his hand anyways. "Hey, um... what are we going to tell people? You know... about us." he asked awkwardly, blushing and looking at his feet.

Antonio paused. "We'll let them figure it out. My friends are obviously hella gay, so I don't think it'd be that much of a problem with them."

Lovino smiled. "The people that I wouldn't really consider friends but I don't know what else to call them are probably gay for each other, so I think we're okay there. What if people... make fun of us?"

"Then we can secretly make fun of them behind their backs." Antonio replied simply. Rude comments never bugged him anyways.

"I don't think that's going to do too much." Lovino frowned.

"Well, no..." Antonio admitted. "...we could pull through. Right?"

"Right." Lovino nodded, gripping his hand a little tighter.

"That's the spirit, Lovi!" Antonio happily said, swinging their hands back and forth.

Lovino blushed as they reached the light, his handing swinging loosely.

"You blush so easily." Antonio remarked as they crossed the street, laughing.

"Shut up!" Lovi exclaimed. "Saying things like that don't help with that, bastard!"

Antonio smirked. "You're blushing harder~!"

"Obviously, idiot! Stop saying that!" Lovino whined as they grew closer to the school.

Antonio laughed. "Well, with a reaction like yours, I probably won't anytime soon... you're too cute!"

"Damn bastard..." Lovino muttered as they reached the school and had to go their separate ways.

Antonio stuck his tongue out at Lovino. "You know you love me~" He teasingly said. "Bye!" He let go of Lovino's hand and went to gym.

Lovino watched him walk away for a moment, before going inside and heading to his locker. He put away his backpack and took out his binder for math and made his way toward the classroom.

Time passed, and eventually it was lunch. Antonio waited under the tree in the courtyard, munching on a tomato.

"Ciao, bastardo." Lovino said as he reached the spaniard, sitting down beside him.

Antonio smiled. "Hi Lovi! How were your classes?"

"They were alright, I guess... kind of boring..." he replied, leaning back against the tree they were at.

"Mine too..." Antonio sighed. "Which spawn of Satan thought giving me gym first thing was a good idea?"

"At least it's out of the way now." Lovino smiled slightly, grabbing Antonio's hand.

"Yup." Antonio said, squeezing Lovino's hand. "Your hand's warm!"

"Shut up, bastard." Lovino whined.

"Make me." Antonio said, trying to make his tone flirtatious.

Lovino blushed a bright red, looking around in shock before giving Antonio a quick peck on the lips and looking down again with an even larger blush on his face.

Antonio blinked, blushing. Oh my god, that was cute. Heart rate still going at a rapid pace, he chuckled. "Okay, you made me."

Lovino's blush on grew. He hid his face in his knees, turning away from Antonio in embarrassment.

Antonio laughed and wrapped and arm around Lovino. "Don't be sorry!"

"I didn't say I was sorry. I can do whatever I want!" Lovino exclaimed, crossing his arms.

"Yeah. Sure, Lovi. Sure." Antonio said, making his tone as sarcastic as possible.

"Idiot..." Lovino muttered, pushing his shoulder. He looked at his iPod, sighing at the time. "We should probably go now... do we have music now?" He asked, turning to look at him.

"Hm. Yeah, on Mondays, it was double Music, right?" Antonio mused, thinking.

"I think so..." Lovino nodded, taking Antonio's hand with a large blush on his face and pulling him towards the school.

Antonio happily followed Lovino, humming. He was holding Lovi's hand! Whoo!

"Um, I guess I'll meet you in the music room..." Lovino muttered, looking at his feet and letting go of Antonio's hand.

"Okay Lovi!" Antonio happily said, hugging him quickly before speeding off, grinning.

Lovino grabbed his things from his locker before heading off to the music room. He sat at the piano, waiting for Antonio and playing some random songs. He somehow began playing The Bohemian Rhapsody (?).

Antonio burst into the music room, hoping he wasn't late. He recognized the song and beamed. "I love that song~!"

Lovino smiled. "I don't really know how I started playing this..." He said, continuing the song.

"It's still really great." Antonio said, leaning over the piano to watch Lovino press the keys.

"Nothing really matters," Lovino sang jokingly. "To meee!" he laughed, hitting the last few notes and bowing from his seat.

Antonio clapped. "Whoa, man. Intense. You should get into singing."

"I hope you're joking," Lovino said, taking out his binder so he could grab the sheets of music for their song and set them up.

"Well, not much." Antonio said, remembering he had to get a guitar. He went to garb one and scooched up next to Lovino. "Okay! Let's do this."

Lovino nodded, positioning his fingers and waiting a moment before playing the beginning notes.

Antonio strummed the chords, nodding to the beat and ignoring the slowly filling class.

Lovino played for another minute or two as Antonio's guitar slowed down and the piano picked up speed as they had discussed the week before.

Antonio smirked, slowing like he should, and picking up when he should, everything sounding melodic and hopeful and sad all at once. It was beautiful.

Lovino played the last few notes, completely entranced in the song, finishing his part and allowing Antonio to play the ending.

Antonio strummed, in the zone, or so Alfred would put it, and finished. A pause. "That sounded pretty good, eh, Lovi?"

Lovino nodded. "I think that was the best one yet." he agreed.

Antonio beamed. "It was! Wow, we're getting good at this!"

Lovi smiled. "I bet that most of the class have barely started theirs."

Antonio smirked. "Losers."

"Ugh, I can't wait to go home... I'm so tired." Lovino whined, lying back on the piano bench.

Antonio patted Lovino on the back. "It's last period Lovi, we'll be okay."

Lovino sighed. "There's still 40 minutes!" He complained.

Antonio ruffled Lovino's hair, carefully avoiding the curl. "We could just do nothing, if you want. We're ahead, anyways!"

"Okay... As long as we don't get into any trouble." Lovino replied thoughtfully, pressing a few random keys.

"Nah, we won't. Mr. Roma's nice enough, and as long as he doesn't catch us drinking cocaine or anything we're good!" Antonio chirped, blissfully unaware of his slip-up with how you do cocaine.

"...I don't think you can drink cocaine, Toni..." Lovino said slowly, looking at him weirdly.

"Psh. How would you take it then?" Antonio said, rolling his eyes.

"You smoke it, Antonio." Lovino said. "Are you joking?"

Antonio shook his head. "You just light it on fire? But... they're pills, right?"

"It's a really strong fire that burns the coke in a pipe." Lovino explained, not being able to believe that he was actually doing this.

"Oooh." Antonio said, nodding. He understood now. "Wait, how did we start talking about this...?"

"I don't know..." Lovino said, thinking back. "I think you said that Mr. Roma would only get upset if we were drinking cocaine..."

Antonio paused. "Oh, yeah." A silence, and then he started laughing.

Lovino smiled, falling forwards in a silent laugh.

Antonio patted Lovino's shoulder, still giggling a little. "Ah, good times."

"Good times." Lovino said, dragging out the vowels and smiling at Antonio.

Antonio grinned at Lovino, smoothing his hair back. "Okay. Now what? We still have, like, 30 minutes left." He said, glancing at the clock.

Lovino shrugged, sighing. "We could play random songs together?" he suggested.

"Okay!" Antonio said, adjusting the guitar. "Whatcha wanna play?"

Lovino shrugged. "Do you wanna play some Evanescence? If you know any of their songs, that is."

Antonio nodded. "Sure thing, Lovi~" He happily said. "I don't know how to play any, but I could learn..."

"I don't know how to play guitar, but I guess I could play the piano and you could try and play the same thing but on guitar?" Lovino suggested, putting his fingers in place and waiting for confirmation.

Antonio nodded. "Okay! Sounds fun! Ready when you are~"

Lovino began playing the opening to My Immortal by Evanescence, stopping after a little bit to see how Antonio was doing with it.

Antonio paused for a bit, then played the small section, messing up a little, but still. "Hey, that sounded pretty okay!"

Lovino smiled slightly, nodding in agreement. "You're pretty good at that..."

"Really? Thanks! Okay, next part." Antonio said eagerly, bouncing a little in his seat.

Lovino nodded, continuing from where be had left off.

Antonio blinked. Oh, that sounded sort of tough. He tried to replicate it, and made several mistakes. "Dammit, let me try again..."

"Okay, no rush..." Lovino nodded.

Antonio tried again, biting his lip. He managed to do alright. "Yay~ I did it!"

Lovino clapped his hand, positioning them in the right spots afterwards. "Are you ready for the next part?"

Antonio nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Hit me with your best shot."

Lovino was tempted to burst out into that song, but held that small part of him back and continued playing.

Antonio replicated it with minor slip-ups. "I'm getting the hang of this~"

Lovino nodded, smiling slightly. "Do you want to try the next part?"

"Sure thing Lovi~" Antonio grinned, getting ready to strum.

Lovino played the next part. They were almost at the end of the song.

Antonio played it nearly perfect- he had gotten the gist of the song. "Okay. Simple!"

"There's only one part left." Lovino said, placing his fingers in the correct position and beginning to play it.

"Okay~" He excitedly said, grinning. This was pretty easy.

Lovino played several notes, finishing up that last bit of the song. Without the singing, it wasn't as depressing (but it was pretty damn close).

Antonio finished along, brow knitted in concentration. "Hm. You like sad songs, huh Lovi?" He said, strumming the last bit.

Lovino shrugged. "I guess so... in a weird way, they make me feel alright..."

"Hm. That's kinda cool." Antonio remarked. When he was sad, he normally just petted his turtles and ate ice cream- music didn't come to mind, for some reason.

Depending on the song, Lovino would get 'the feels'. And may or may not cry... he wouldn't tell you that himself, though. He nodded. "Do you remember how to play the whole thing?"

"Uh, sort of." Antonio shrugged. He probably could. "Okay, could we try again?"

"Together or do you want to practice again?" Lovino questioned.

"Together?" Antonio asked hopefully.

"Okay," Lovino nodded. "One, two three, four." he said, beginning to play the opening to it.

Antonio played along seamlessly, beaming with joy despite the fact that this song was sad. He was doing it!

Once they had finished the song, Lovino smiled slightly. "That was pretty good."

"Really? Wow, thanks! Your part was really good too." Antonio cheerily said, happy to have learned something new.

"Well, I have played the actual thing before... Have you heard that song outside of this?" Lovino asked.

"Erm, once or twice." Antonio said. He'd heard it, but it had been a while.

Lovino nodded. "Fair enough."

"So, I'm not that great..." Antonio said, shrugging. "How do you play piano like that?"

Lovino shrugs as well. "I can show you how to play, if you want? I mean, it's kind of confusing so I won't explain it in too much detail..."

Antonio beamed. "That sounds really fun! Okay okay, what song first?"

"I don't know, what song do you want to learn?" Lovino asked, moving over to give Antonio some room.

"Oh! Oh! Can we do Don't Stop Believing? Pleeease?" Antonio asked. It was a cliche song, but it was a favourite of his.

"Alright," Lovino laughed. He set his fingers on the right notes, showing Antonio where be should put his.

Antonio positioned his fingers, brow knitted in concentration. He was going to do his best.

Lovino told Antonio what notes were what, pressing them down as he did. "Now you try." He said, moving his hand away.

Antonio replicated it, going much slower than Lovino and pressing the keys down way too hard. "Mm... shoot..."

"Do you want to try again?" Lovi asked.

Antonio nodded. "Yeah. If that's okay."

"Okay," Lovino agreed, replaying the part a little slower for Antonio.

Antonio intently watched Lovino play, and nodded. He tried again, considerably better. "I'm getting the hang of it!"

Lovino smiled, nodding. "Do you want the next part?" he asked, looking at the clock. They had about ten or so minutes left.

Antonio nodded, not worrying about the time. "Yeah."

Lovino played the next part at regular speed, maybe a little slower, turning to Antonio afterwards to see if he'd got it.

Antonio played it at the same pace as before- the piano intro was pretty hard- except without a mistake. "Still slow." He murmured, and played the part again, this time at decent speed. He smiled, satisfied.

Lovino nodded. "That was good." he said, beginning the next part just as the bell rang.

Antonio frowned. "Darn..." He was excited to learn the next bit. Shrugging, he stood up. "It's okay."

"There's always next class..." Lovi said, closing the top of the grand piano, grabbing his books and tucking in the bench.

"Yeah, that's true." Antonio shrugged. "So, meetchya at the tree?"

"Okay," Lovino nodded, walking out of the classroom and towards his locker.

After getting his stuff from his locker- unfortunately smelling quite strongly of perfume- he went over to the tree, leaning against it and listening to Don't Stop Believing'. He had to.

Lovino put away his things and made his way to the tree, hearing the music as he grew closer and rolled his eyes.

"Hi Lovi!" Antonio said as the other neared the tree, happily waving.

Lovino waved back, sitting beside him. "Haven't seen you in a while." He said sarcastically.

"I know! It's been forever!" Antonio joked, rolling his eyes.

Lovino was tempted to ask for a bite of Antonio's tomato, but knew that even if he did it would just make him feel hungrier later. "Let me see that," he said, pointing to his iPod.

Antonio happily gave Lovino the iPod. "Don't steal it." He sarcastically said, grinning.

Lovino smiled back, searching through the songs. He chose Dammit by Blink-182, handing him the iPod back.

"Oh, this is fitting." Antonio nodded, smiling. He liked the song, and the title reminded him of Lovino.

Lovi smiled slightly. "It's my favourite song by them." he said, humming along to the lyrics.

Antonio grinned. He held out his hand to Lovino.

Lovino eyed the hand cautiously, taking it in his own slowly. "If you're expecting me to dance, then that's not what you're getting, bastardo." He said.

"Too late!" Antonio laughed, beginning to spin around.

"How do you even dance to this song?" Lovino grumbled bitterly. Being twirled around like a girl was not on his to-do list.

"I have my ways, Lovi~!" Antonio teased, still trying to get Lovino to do more than stiffly tolerate the dancing.

"I can't dance, bastard. How many times do I have to tell you?" He whined.

"You can't dance unless you believe you can!" Antonio said, most likely quoting from an overly corny children's movie.

"I believe I can't dance." Lovino stated, turning in a circle because of Antonio's movements.

"Nah, you're doing really great!" Antonio chuckled, happy that Lovino was at least moving.

Lovino frowned in annoyance, but he secretly enjoyed it as the song changed to another Blink-182 song, I Miss You which might be a little easier to dance to.

"Aaaah! This song's easier! Move to the beat, Lovi!" Antonio cheered.

Lovino growled. "I don't even know what the beat is, dammit!" He yelled, getting frustrated in himself for not being able to show how he was actually feeling.

"It's easy~! One, two, three, one, two, three..." He began counting to keep the beat, oblivious to Lovino's internal struggle

Lovino sighed loudly, trying his hardest (which didn't seem like much with his level of dance-skill) but to no avail. He truly sucked. Feliciano was always the better dancer.

Antonio rolled his eyes. Aaah... Lovi really couldn't dance... he smiled. "You're trying really hard!"

"Shut up," Lovino blushed, trying to pull out of Antonio's grasp and sit back down. He was too tired for this.

Antonio finally let Lovino go, out of breath himself. He leaned against the tree, smiling. "See! That was fun!"

Lovi scowled, changing the song on Antonio's iPod. He put everything on shuffle, but he didn't recognize the first song.

Antonio's eyes widened when the first bars of Dakota by Stereophonics started playing. "Aaaah~ this song's so flowy~" He smiled peacefully.

"I am not dancing to this." Lovino said, crossing his arms.

"Aaaw. Spoilsport." Antonio complained, sticking his tongue out at Lovino.

He rolled his eyes, but wasn't willing to give in so easily (or at all, if he could help it). He just sat silently, looking up at Antonio in annoyance.

Antonio sighed. "Okay, okay..." He then checked his watch. "We should probably start walking back?"

Lovino nodded in agreement, standing up again. They began their walk back to the school. "What do you have?" He asked.

"Health." He wrinkled his nose in disgust. Health was really, really scarring.

"I have math, I think." Lovino said as he took Antonio's hand with a small blush that was barely noticeable.

"Aaaah... both of them sucks. Too bad we can't just skip..." He smiled as Lovi took his hand. Cutie~!

Lovino nodded as they reached the school and had to part ways, letting go of the hand he had been holding.

Antonio quickly pecked Lovino on the cheek. "Bye!" He then sped off to Health, smiling widely.

Lovino blushed, looking around to see if anyone had noticed before turning around and heading towards the math classroom.

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><p>AN

Thanks to Stomei97, Miss Akiyata, Dragon Slayer's Girl and Sleepery for reviewing! :)


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